What percent of autistic people are lgbtq
News and Truth
Sexuality and gender are spectrums, as is autism. People’s sexuality and gender identities do not necessarily conform to specific guidelines. In fact, it is more common for autistic individuals to deviate from gender norms. Gender norms are set ideas that attempt to dictate the ways a person should act, look, and identify based on their gender. In a similar way, autistic individuals are expected to fit a label developed by neurotypical individuals. Understanding the overlap of autism and LGBTQIA+ identities is an important step in validating our neurodiverse community. Autism serves as a gateway to gender and sexuality exploration and expression by challenging cisgender and heterosexual societal norms.
So, how do autistic individuals deviate from societal norms about gender and sexuality? According to creator Laura Dattaro, “A 2018 Australian survey of transgender adolescents and young adults found that 22.5 percent had been diagnosed with autism, compared with 2.5 percent of all Australians. Some experts estimate that 6 to 25.5 percent of gender-diverse people are autistic.” The Australian survey suggests that a quarter of gender-diverse individuals could
Position Statement on Autistic-LGBTIQA+ Identity
Written by Sam Rose¹ with Melanie Heyworth
Introduction
In recent years, it has become widely accepted that there is a considerable overlap between the Autistic and the LGBTIQA+ communities (Davidson & Tamas, 2016). However, a corresponding effort to aid the Autistic-LGBTIQA+ community has not been forthcoming, and there is a noticeable lack of resource allocation, acceptance, and support for this intersectionality (George & Stokes, 2018b; Hillier et al., 2020; Strang et al., 2014, 2018; Telfer et al., 2018).
Due to stigma and discrimination perpetuated by the media, conservative views of gender and sexuality, and misunderstanding of Autistic lived experiences, Autistic-LGBTIQA+ people face multiple barriers to realising their original identities, including their sexual and gender identities (MacKenzie, 2018). These barriers are further increased for members of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, such as First Nations peoples and migrant communities, who deal with racial discrimination in accessing the LGBTIQA+ community and supports (Hill et al., 2021). Despite these compounded vulnerabilities, we also kno
Autism and being LGBTQ+
In this blog I will discuss the challenges that people with autism who are also Diverse can face and how being part of both groups can cause challenges on their have. I will analyze research that has been conducted into being both Diverse and having autism.
I discovered I was a lesbian before I discovered I have a nonverbal learning disability (NVLD). Coming out to my family aged 13 was nerve wracking as it is for a lot of fresh people. But I knew my parents would be comprehending and supportive because they have had LGBTQ+ friends my whole life. Both of my parents have always been vocal about accepting people for who they are. I knew I was extremely lucky for having open minded parents and family and for not being disowned for my sexuality and thrown out on the streets.
Almost nine years later, I was diagnosed with an NVLD when I was at university. NVLD is a learning disability which has some similarities to autism, such as having social skills difficulties. It is reflection to be on the autistic spectrum by some professionals.
Everything started to produce sense for me when I received my diagnosis. Things like, why my friends and university peers were internet dating
Marina Sarris
Date Revised: April 9, 2024
People often face rejection when they say they are LGBQ+, but Jada Thompson also contended with something else when she came out: disbelief. Thompson is autistic, so some people assumed that she didn’t know what she was saying.
“Certain people view us as children. Maybe they have seen an autistic person who seems to have a child-like innocence, but that’s not usually the case,” says Thompson, who participates in SPARK, the largest uninterrupted study of autism.
Thompson, 25, identifies as pansexual, which is an attraction to people of any gender identity, and nonbinary, which means not simply female or male. Thompson, whose pronouns are she/they, wants to be accepted for who she is. That struggle is made more difficult by stereotypes and misperceptions about autism, sexuality, and gender, she says.
“None of my identities are really accepted,” says Thompson, who is also Shadowy . “I found out there are a lot more queer people in the autism community. That made me feel better, and I was able to find community there.”
A recent study of 651 independent autistic adults in SPARK found that a
Marina Sarris
Date Revised: June 12, 2024
One day, Riley Smith learned from some former co-workers that an acquaintance had come out as transgender. Smith felt joyful for the acquaintance, but she also felt something else. “Afterward, in the days and weeks that followed, I felt a different emotion that I recognized as envy. It led to me to ask myself increasingly complicated questions about who I was.”
Assigned male at birth, Smith eventually came to realize that she is a transgender woman. As an autistic person, she is not alone. A higher percentage of autistic people identify as womxn loving womxn, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) than the general population, according to research studies.1-5 A 2017 Gallup poll found that 4.5 percent of Americans identify as LGBT.
Studies vary widely on the percentage of people with autism who are gay, female homosexual, or bisexual. One assessment suggested the rate is 15 to 35 percent among autistic people who do not have intellectual disability. 2
“Most of the data that we’re seeing is that [the LGB rate] is two to three times higher,” says clinical psychologist Eileen T. Crehan, Ph.D., an assistant prof