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Comment by timwaagh | Hacker News Reader

trans people, might reasonably be described as people "whose attempts to make friends are odd and typically unsuccessful". Since that phrase got ripped straight off the dsm diagnostic criteria for autism on https://www.autismspeaks.org/autism-diagnosis-criteria-dsm-5, it should not be any surprise whatsoever that these are correlated (same as with any other category of significantly 'odd' people).

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>trans people, might reasonably be described as people "whose attempts to make friends are odd and typically unsuccessful".

Is this a quote from the article? I can't seem to find it.

That is very much not the case in my opinion. Many trans people are social and have both cis (non-trans) and trans friends.

The quoted line is from the site I mentioned (ie its a diagnostic criterion for autism). Being social has nothing to do with it. Many trans people don't completely pass as their gender of choice. This lands them in somewhat of an uncanny valley and makes it more difficult for them to make friends compared to the average person.

> trans people, might reasonably be described as people "whose attempts to make friends are odd and typically unsuccessful".

This is a thoroughly bizarre assertion. Why can trans people be described thus?

This is also not the case in many real life examples of trans friends who readily are outgoing and make friends I see and know. I believe they were using that quote from something above that was mentioned as being a quote from autism spectrum disorder, and they were using it as a parallel. It's also not the case in many autistic friends, though. I know many close friends on the spectrum that are loud, outgoing and make friends very readily.

They usually don't quite look like their gender of choice landing them in somewhat of an uncanny valley. Me or you will have an instinctive negative reaction to them which will then have to be overcome. Of course that doesn't mean they never make any friends. But that is not what is being said. What is being said is they will have more unsuccessful attempts than the average person.

> They usually don't quite look like their gender of choice

This is confirmation bias. You notice people who don't look like you think they should look. You then think those people are trans, and when you check a few it turns out they are trans. You've confirmed your bias, and now you think it's true.

What you haven't taken into account is all the people who don't fit this pattern: athletic black women who were born female and identify as female but who are assumed to be transwomen (see all the conspiracy theories around Michelle Obama or the Williams sisters), or the people who do pass well that you're just not aware of.

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