This article was originally published in Autistic Revolution magazine.

I often get asked why I share so much on LGBTQIA+ and Autistic identities and issues. Firstly, it has been a passion of mine as I’ve slowly begun to understand my own sexuality, gender, and neurology. Secondly, the overlap of being LGBTQIA+ and Autistic is big. Really big. That doesn’t mean all Autistic people are LGBTQIA+, or that all queer folx are Autistic – it just means that there are a lot of us who are both.

Living along both spectrums means we may experience ableism in queer spaces and queerphobia in Autistic spaces. As Autistic people, we can have our behaviour and identities constantly questioned, misbelieved or devalued. This makes it difficult for us to feel like we belong anywhere – we are stigmatised for being rude, loud, abrupt, weird, creepy, overly sensitive. We are never the porridge which is ‘just right’.

Some of us can have our gender identity (or lack thereof) dismissed as a misunderstanding – as if Autistic people can’t fathom gender expression and what it might mean to us. We can also be seen as sexless and unable to connect with others, for some of us that is true, but for many more of us this is inaccurate. Also, what is wrong with being asexual and aromantic? These ways of connecting with others are not bad, wrong or broken, they are another way of socialising. Asexual and aromantic people are very much part of the queer community.

Due to being gatekept from queer, and disabled spaces, we have created our own spaces – spaces where we can freely create and recreate ourselves and how we relate to others. We can be authentic in these spaces, we do not need to pass as heterosexual, cisgender, romantic and sexual, and we do not need to mask our Autistic behaviours and needs. These spaces (what I sometimes refer to as Autistic Shields) allow us to protect ourselves and those we care about. They also allow us to create our own queer cultures. In these spaces and shields we belong, but belong in wider society too, we have always been here – we are weaved into the very fabric which makes up diversity.