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“That diagnosis may have made it more difficult to figure out that I was transgender, mainly because I had issues with not being fully in touch with my own feelings and desires,” explains Smith, a participant in the SPARK autism study. Riley Smith, 26, wonders if being on the autism spectrum delayed her recognition of her gender identity when she was younger. “Is the timeline similar in autism? There are a lot of questions to answer.” Autism and Self-Awareness in the Teen Years Do they take an interest in dating and become aware of sexual orientation and gender identity at the same ages as their typically developing classmates, she asks. But those on the spectrum may develop socially on a different timeline, Crehan says. Students often take sex education classes in the pre-teen to early teen years, when most children reach puberty. schools often teach sex education differently from state to state, and many such classes do not address LGBTQ issues, she says.Ĭrehan wonders about the timing of sex education for some youth who have autism. In an interview, Crehan says access to appropriate sex education is “an area of need” across the autism community, especially for those with minimal verbal skills.
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She asks, “How do we prepare youth, particularly those with autism, to navigate sexual relationships and their own identity?” She discusses sexual orientation, gender identity, and autism in a recorded webinar for SPARK, the largest study of autism. Examples of gender identities included in that study were bigender, genderqueer, and “other.” 3 Sex Education for Students with AutismĮileen Crehan studies sexuality, gender identity, and sex education experiences in adults who have autism. Also, a larger percentage of autistic people reported their gender as being something other than strictly male or female, compared to other people. One study found the rate to be two to three times higher in people who have autism. Research suggests that people who have an autism diagnosis or autism traits are more likely to be transgender than the general population. The women were more likely to be attracted to both sexes, and also to neither sex. 3, 5 In a Dutch study, for example, only 57 percent of autistic women reported being straight compared to 82 percent of autistic men. Several studies also suggest that autistic men are more likely than autistic women to be heterosexual. But larger studies need to be done before the true rate is known, she says. Crehan, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Tufts University. “Most of the data that we’re seeing is that is two to three times higher,” says clinical psychologist Eileen T. One analysis suggested the rate is 15 to 35 percent among autistic people who do not have intellectual disability. Studies vary widely on the percentage of people with autism who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual. 1-5 A 2017 Gallup poll found that 4.5 percent of Americans identify as LGBT. A higher percentage of autistic people identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) than the general population, according to research studies. It led to me to ask myself increasingly difficult questions about who I was.”Īssigned male at birth, Smith eventually came to realize that she is a transgender woman.
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“Afterward, in the days and weeks that followed, I felt a different emotion that I recognized as envy. Smith felt happy for the acquaintance, but she also felt something else. One day, Riley Smith learned from some former co-workers that an acquaintance had come out as transgender.