Autistic LGBTQ community seeks louder voice in debate

Autistic LGBTQ people are pushing back against those invoking autism as a way to limit LGBTQ rights, calling it a misunderstanding of both communities that denies their autonomy.

Political figures on the right who have fought against gender affirming care for minors have increasingly cited the overlap of autistic and LGBTQ-identified people, particularly trans people, to imply that autistic people are being manipulated into identifying as LGBTQ.

At the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) claimed that “many” minors given gender-affirming care have diagnoses of “autism [and] mental illness.”

An April order by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) went further, ordering both adults and youth to undergo a screening for autism before obtaining access to gender-affirming care. Bailey withdrew the order the following month.

Gavin Grimm, a trans Virginia man who was the plaintiff in a landmark civil rights lawsuit, says such claims and orders assume autistic people can’t determine their own sexuality.

“The obvious angle is assuming we’re not cognitively capable of understanding the same things neurotypicals are,” said Grimm, who is also autistic.

Grimm and others say that while several studies have found a disproportionate number of autistic people identifying as LGBTQ, this is likely a sign of autistic people having a more nuanced understanding of their own identity rather than manipulation by others.

Research from the University of Cambridge published in 2021 in the journal Autism Research found autistic men were 3.5 times more likely to identify as bisexual than nonautistic peers, while autistic women were three times likelier to identify as gay than nonautistic peers.

Another study indicated that 15 percent to 35 percent of autistic people without intellectual disabilities identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual.

A 2016 study from New York University’s Child Study Center indicated autistic children and adolescents are seven times more likely to exhibit gender variance.

“There is strong evidence that there is a proportional over-occurrence of autism among gender diverse and transgender people. There is also emerging evidence that LGBTQ identities may be more common among autistic people, especially by adulthood,” John Strang, pediatric neuropsychologist at Children’s National Hospital and the director of the Gender and Autism Program, told The Hill in an email.

Strang sharply disputed the idea that autistic people are being manipulated into identifying with an LGBTQ identity, however.

He said that the implication that autistic people have been manipulated into LGBTQ identities is to deny their status as full, autonomous participants in society, and a variation on the principle behind discredited practices such as conversion therapy.

“Freedom of self-determination is one of our society’s core values. Yet, for autistic people in our society, there is a painful history of rights for self-determination being denied,” he said. “Sexual orientation and gender identity are highly personal experiences that can only be known by the individual. And it can take time for people to come to know who they are in terms of their sexuality and gender — this is true for autistic and non-autistic people, alike.”

While Grimm was in high school, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Gloucester County (Va.) School Board in 2015 on his behalf so that he could use the boys restroom in his school.

After a years-long court battle, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2021 refused to review a district court ruling in Grimm’s favor.

Grimm said that far from making him more suggestible, being autistic gave him a unique drive to question ideas and concepts that others may take for granted, including those around gender.

“I grew up in a world based on a social contract that I was not pre-briefed on, and I just realized these rules made no sense,” Grimm told The Hill. “It just seems to me as an autistic person that neurotypical [nonautistic] worldviews accept premises without reason, like pink is for girls, blue is for boys. … I just realized these rules made no sense.”

Despite concerns around increased rates of autism diagnoses over the past few decades, experts believe the rise is due less to environmental factors and more to more expansive diagnostic criteria and fewer autistic people being institutionalized and removed from view.

Grimm believes that younger people, particularly those on the autism spectrum, have a less rigid view of gender and sexuality.

“I think we’re seeing all sorts of reflections of … a breakdown of how seriously some of these things are taken,” he said.

Strand said autistic LGBTQ people face greater mental health risks than other populations, underscoring the need for a deeper understanding.

“Several studies suggest that autistic LGBTQ individuals may face greater mental health risks and healthcare disparities than independently autistic or LGBTQ populations,” Strang said. “This is not surprising as individuals at the intersection of more than one minoritized identity often face greater disparities.”

Grimm said that within the trans community, “It’s known that a lot of us are autistic,” and is not seen as a big deal. But arguments that autistic people are being manipulated into thinking they are trans or gay are offensive, Grimm said.

“It’s not a secret … the demographic most likely to understand gender is being told we couldn’t possibly understand gender,” he said.

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