Katy Higgins Lee

For anyone who missed the live event, here is the video of my conversation with Nick Walker on Neuroqueering Somatics.

I’m so excited to share about this event!
Please join us as I interview Dr. Nick Walker on the topic of Neuroqueering Somatics. (Two of my favorite subjects!)

Excerpt from "Don't Mourn For Us", a speech by Jim Sinclair, 1993: "Autism isn't something a person has, or a 'shell' that a person is trapped inside. There's no normal child hidden behind the autism. Autism is a way of being. It is pervasive; it colors every experience, every sensation, perception, thought, emotion, and encounter, every aspect of existence." tending paths -

Excerpt from "Don't Mourn For Us", a speech by Jim Sinclair, 1993: "It is not possible to separate the autism from the person--and if it were possible, the person you'd have left would not be the same person you started with. This is important, so take a moment to consider it: Autism is a way of being. It is not possible to separate the person from the autism." tending paths

Excerpt from "Don't Mourn For Us", a speech by Jim Sinclair, 1993: "Therefore, when parents say, I wish my child did not have autism, what they're really saying is, I wish the autistic child I have did not exist, and I had a different (non-autistic) child instead. Read that again." tending paths

Excerpt from "Don't Mourn For Us", a speech by Jim Sinclair, 1993: "This is what we hear when you mourn over our existence. This is what we hear when you pray for a cure. This is what we know, when you tell us of your fondest hopes and dreams for us: that your greatest wish is that one day we will cease to be, and strangers you can love will move in behind our faces." tending paths

Full text of Jim Sinclair’s 1993 speech: https://philosophy.ucsc.edu/SinclairDontMournForUs.pdf

I spent the morning presenting (aka info-dumping) on the neurodiversity paradigm, which means that my Fitbit reads as if I walked almost 4 miles, but I was seated the whole time.

Why? Lots of gesticulation and stimming.

(And hooray for 100 more therapists learning about ND-affirming therapy!)

Ugh. Just saw someone post about that nurse in Germany who injected thousands of people with saline instead of the Covid vaccine and they were happy that she wasn’t charged for it and called her a “brave hero”.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that their goal was never actually “medical freedom”.

Text reads: Thank you for reaching out and for the invitation to a paid partnership with (redacted). While your products look amazing, I am concerned about the video footage of children using your products that I see in many of the videos on your instagram account. I adamantly believe that images and videos of very young children should not be shared publicly on social media, especially for advertising products. Many of them have not given consent and, if they have given consent, are often too young to understand the implications of giving consent, since many of them are still toddlers. Also, although I currently reside in one of the three states that have implemented laws regarding child influencers, I am assuming that most of the families who have contributed video footage are not based in one of those three states, and I do not think that the regulations that do exist in those states are even extensive enough to protect children. Thank you for the offer, but I am not interested. Sincerely, Katy Higgins Lee

A recent (edited) response to an email I received.
While this is regarding advertising, I feel the same way about accounts that advocate for neurodivergent children because, as I’ve said before, we can advocate for neurodivergent children without using their images or telling details about them.

No, they are not. (I’m not clear on where you are going with your questions. I can’t tell if you are asking out of genuine curiosity or if you are trying to start an argument.)

No. I am referring to the fact that trans people are more likely to be neurodivergent and neurodivergent people are more likely to be trans.

If someone describes themself as “gender critical” or “gender cautious”, they cannot be neurodiversity-affirming, despite their claims.

Recommended Reading

Menakem, R. (2017). My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. Central Recovery Press

Johnson, R. (2023). Embodied Activism: Engaging the Body to Cultivate Liberation, Justice, and Authentic Connection. Penguin Random House

(11)

It is a continual process and practice, as opposed to a fixed destination. (10)

When we cultivate our somatic bandwidth, we can learn to be with diverse experiences, including those who subvert normativity.

Even those of us who think we are progressive and liberal need to work toward unraveling the ways we continue to have unconscious attachments to normativity. (9)

Somatic bandwidth is a term that was coined by Rae Johnson and refers to the ability to be comfortable with feeling and witnessing a range of sensations and embodied emotions. (8)

In order to shift this, we all need to learn to cultivate our somatic bandwidth so that we can tolerate the feelings that arise when we witness ambiguity and complexity. (7)

Their nervous system perceives that there is a threat where there is no threat, and their nervous system automatically reacts, usually with a fight response of anger, judgment, mistrust, and attempts to control the other. (6)

When they witness people who are living their life without adhering to these standards of normativity, they feel threatened. (5)

Many people have a fear of ambiguity and complexity, and therefore live their life according to these standards of normativity, so that they don’t have to feel those feelings of fear. (4)

This is an all-or-nothing way of thinking, which of course is usually not the reality of actual experience, but many people hold tightly to this perspective. (3)

This can apply to gender, sexuality, race, culture, and disability, including neurodivergence.

This often manifests in the idea that white, cis, straight, and able-bodied is the norm and everyone else is an other. (2)

Our current political and social
situation is related to a cultural attachment to normativity.

The concept of normativity refers to the idea that there are certain ways of being that are “normal“ and that anyone who deviates from these standards of normal is considered abnormal or wrong or bad. (1)

To: Governor Gavin Newsom I am writing to express my profound disappointment in the opinions shared by you, Governor Gavin Newsom, on your podcast episode yesterday. The rights of the trans community are under attack by the current administration, and this has already emboldened people to treat trans people as less than human, as evidenced by the recent brutal murder of Sam Nordquist. As a public figure representing the state of California, you have a responsibility to model being an ally, despite your long-term career goals. Your comments show that you do not recognize the danger of feeding the fire of anti-trans extremism. As a resident of the state of California for 45 years, I am disappointed and fearful of the repercussions of your remarks. Sincerely, Kathryn Lee

Share your thoughts with the Governor at: https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact

Risk of sexual assault in bathrooms due to trans people?

A stitch someone made with one of my videos went viral…And now it’s time for another round of people giving me unsolicited medical advice about a facial feature that is genetic and related to my ethnicity. 🙄

Are you a #Neurodivergent researcher whose job was funded by the NSF or the NIH? I'd love to talk with you. My signal is emgarcia.85.

Opinion | The assault on DEI? It’s aimed at resegregation. The GOP leaders attacking inclusion programs want to go back to an era when White men ran everything

My latest.

As journalists and writers, we have a duty to use language that is accurate and describes our current reality.

I’m no longer going to talk about DEI/Anti-DEI.

Let’s be clear. We are facing racial purges and re-segregation.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

NASA did a feature on me last year. It was up this weekend but now when you click on the link you get a 404 message.

The Maasai People Are Being Forcibly Removed From Their Ancestral Lands The Maasai people of Tanzania are being met with a specific form of violence - gentrification! Their government is forcibly evicting them from ancestral lands. Why?

The government claims this community is voluntarily leaving their homes. That’s a lie. Their homes are being stolen from them. Could our communities be next?

They’re Fighting Mass Eviction From Their Ancestral Lands ➡️ pushblack.news/f72c94

When we tend to our bodyminds,
and encourage our bodies
to move
and exist
in ways that are not merely in
service of productivity
or the “gaze” of another,
we subvert
neuronormativity,
heteronormativity,
cisnormativity,
capitalism,
and colonialism.

Breaking news: State attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Vermont, and Wisconsin advise Trump's EO banning trans care is unlawful, hospitals should provide care.

Big counter salvo!