Are autistic people more likely to be gay
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 cheerful 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 tough 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 queer woman , 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, woman loving woman, or bisexual. One investigation 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
Autism and LGBTQ+ Identities – What’s the Link?
photo by Barcelos Fotos for Pexels
Many studies have shown that autistic people are more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ than neurotypical people. What is possibly behind this autism and Diverse link? And how does being autistic and being part of the LGBTQ community impact a person?
Writer Kylie Noble explores.
Autism and sexuality
A 2021 study led by the University of Cambridge is the largest learning on the sexual activity, orientation, and health of autistic adults to date.
It found that autistic teenagers and adults are eight times more likely to identify as asexual or of “other” sexuality than their non-autistic peers.
Autistic girls and women were found to be three times more likely to spot as gay than non-autistic peers. And autistic boys and men were initiate to be closer to four times more likely to identify as bi than non-autistic peers.
Autism and gender
The similar study found that autistic people are also more likely to identify astransgender or gender non-conforming.
Of the almost 600,000 adults that were surveyed, trans and non-binary/genderqueer adults were up t
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 see 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 ongoing study of autism.
Thompson, 25, identifies as pansexual, which is an attraction to people of any gender culture, and nonbinary, which means not simply female or male. Thompson, whose pronouns are she/they, wants to be acknowledged for who she is. That strife 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 Ebony. “I found out there are a lot more gender non-conforming people in the autism community. That made me perceive better, and I was able to find community there.”
A new study of 651 independent autistic adults in SPARK found that
Higher numbers of neurodivergent people are LGBTQIA+ - this article explores why
John Anderson is The Brain Charity’s LGBTQ+ characteristic. Here, he shares his thoughts on LGBTQ+ and neurodiversity.
Society is gradually accepting that all of our brains work in different ways—that there is no one ‘correct’ type of brain! A parallel to this is our gradual acceptance of the many identities that fall under the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, gay, pansexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual) umbrella.
Higher numbers of neurodivergent people are LGBTQIA+
Evidence suggests that neurodivergent individuals, particularly those diagnosed with autism, are significantly more likely to identify as LGBTQIA+ than those who are neurotypical.
Latest numbers from the Office of National Statistics suggest that around 3% of the UK population identifies as lesbian, gay or double attraction (though this is likely to be an under-representation), while between 15 -20% of the population is neurodivergent in some way.
However, a recent Cambridge University study found autistic people might be three times more likely to identify as trans, while another study found neurodivergent individ