Happy LGBTQIA+ Pride month!

Throughout the month of June parties and events are happening up and down the country celebrating all things queer. Last year saw the start of mass online Pride events, making them more accessible to disabled people and those with mental illness.

Academia and wider society often perceives us Autistic people as being ‘black and white thinkers’,  suggesting that we think in restricted and binary fashions. We are often (wrongly) understood as being male, cisgender and heterosexual, or genderless beings with no passion, love or sexuality to speak of. 

I have always felt misplaced, misunderstood and confused. When I realised in my mid-twenties that I was Autistic things started to make more sense to me, but it wasn’t the whole story. After my diagnosis and all the ‘a-ha’ moments which came with it, I could finally get down to the business of sorting out my gender and sexuality. 

I have come out of the non-binary closet (see my coming out story here) , and I am so relieved: I am me, finally, entirely, me. When people refer to me as they/ them it makes me feel so euphoric, so seen and comfortable in my Queer embodiment.

Due to the extensive trauma that we experience as Autistics in our formative years, many of us find ourselves seeking connections with other people. Trauma can be a very isolating experience, and naturally we desire love and support…

Alot of people wrongly assume that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a cute tidy ‘quirk’, a need for everything to be organised and ‘just right.’

When in reality OCD is often a very disabling and harmful condition which chips away at a person’s energy levels, emotional regulation and grip on reality.

Spectrum10k is a large-scale study being conducted by the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge.. Spectrum 10k aims to collect and analyse questionnaires, medical records and DNA samples from 10,000 Autistic people (and their family members) in the UK.

So many of us Autistic folk struggle with burnout – the extreme fatigue which comes from sensorial, emotional and mental overwhelm.

This can cause us to shutdown – some of us can be in bed for days or weeks on end, incapable of functioning at our usual level of activity, finding everything mentally taxing.

.

have spent most of my life creating and maintaining a shield for myself. It allows me to protect myself from toxic neurotypicality – the insistent need for society to make everyone comply to the ideals of the neuro-majority.

.

The use of the word “disorder” is important. This word places a level of responsibility on the individual to return to a more “ordered” state, dictated by cultural norms. This has historically been achieved using psychoactive drugs, which are often prescribed before the use of talking therapies.

Historically, being Autistic was considered a male childhood experience, with boys more readily diagnosed than girls. This trend is still prevalent in many areas of autism research but thankfully the gap between male and female diagnosis and realisation is slowly closing. As is the access to diagnosis and realisation for transgender, non-binary and gender divergent individuals.

Since my Autistic realisation, I have been able to make more sense of how I fit into the world. I can now make more sense of strange experiences and interactions in my childhood, teens and early twenties: what it seemed to others that I had done wrong, subtext I completely missed and things I was supposed to be interested in.  

The autism training that many professionals are mandated to do, if they are at all, is usually outdated and steeped in the deficit model which suggests that Autistic people need fixing. These ideas, under the guise of continued professional development, mean that many professionals continue to oppress and marginalise us…

Αυτιστική θωράκιση είναι να κλίνεις προς τις νευρολογικές διαφορές και συμπεριφορές σου. Αγκαλιάζει τη νευρο-αναρχία: να είσαι αυτό που είσαι, να κάνεις αυτό που κάνεις και στα αρχίδια σου αν δεν αρέσει στους άλλους.

While there has been a great deal of discussion around parenting school-age Autistic children, Katie and I are both parents to younger children and feel that there is somewhat of a void in discussions around the early years or parenting an infant…

There is an ongoing crisis in services such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) when it comes to Autistic young people’s mental health. Failing to support our Autistic young people can have a big impact on our wellbeing as parents as we watch our children go through the same systemic discrimination that we have often experienced ourselves…

It is a surprisingly contentious discussion to have, but the neurodiversity paradigm does not just apply to autistic people and ADHD’ers. Neurodivergent is a broad and inclusive term that applies to any bodymind that diverges from the neuronormative standards of a person’s given culture.

Neuro-anarchy is an act of protest, it is how one neuroqueers in spaces that should belong to us but instead remain external in our relationship to who we are. Neuro-anarchy arises from a level of cognitive dissonance that presents when a person finds themselves an outsider in a group that they should fit into…

I’d like to start off by saying how excited we are to be launching the first edition of Autistic Revolution!

The response from the Autistic community from both in and outside of the UK has been immense.

Autistic Revolution is the first of it’s kind – a magazine for and by Autistic people.

“Queer”, once used as a derogative expression, is more often used as an umbrella term for people who identify as LGBTQIA+. It is intentionally ambiguous, allowing flexibility for those who identify outside of cishet normativity…

There is a large distinction between the terms neurodiverse and neurodivergent, neurodiverse meaning everyone and neurodivergent meaning people who diverge from what would be considered normal or majoritive.

The magazine showcases and celebrates autistic identity and culture to empower, validate neurodivergent affirming content. We have an exclusive interview with some of the creators of Autistic Revolution and get to know what the magazine is all about, where to find it and what to look forward to!

As part of the ‘Whatever It Takes — Cancer Care for Everyone’ programme (Wessex Cancer Alliance [WCA], 2023), the ‘What I would like to say…’ project involved two disabled researchers carrying out creative and engaging workshops and interviews with 45 disabled and neurodivergent people,

Written by Nadine Arthur, Neurodiversity! What’s That? is a fun, neurodiversity-affirming, educational book for children aged 8 plus.

Nadine Arthur is an Autistic parent and full time carer of her Autistic ADHD son. She grew tired of professionals telling her about her son’s numerous disorders and searched for children’s books which explained neurodiversity. After an unsuccessful search Nadine decided to write her own!

Dr. Chloe Farahar explores the creation and importance of Autistic identity, culture, community, and space for well-being in their chapter of the same name in The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Autism Studies. Chloe has a PhD in social psychology specifically attempting to improve the dominant discourse surrounding “mental illnesses” (neurodivergences).

Adulting is hard enough, parenting is hard enough. Together they come with a number of considerations for how we can be effective in our role as Autistic parents. In particular, we have to consider the impact of Autistic burnout, which can have a significant effect on not just us, but also our families. Autistic parenting is a challenge with many positives and some significant challenges.

There is a large overlap between LGBTQIA+ identities and being Autistic, so it is important for us to explore how queer identity affects us as neurodivergent people. Standard information on queer identity does not necessarily speak of our experiences.

Pasha Marlowe (she/ they) is the CEO of Neurobelonging™. They are a neurodiversity speaker, coach, and consultant with 30 years of experience as a trauma therapist/coach. 

What does Neurobelonging mean to you?

I find correcting people very difficult – it feels like another part of myself I must defend, another part I must explain to others constantly for a slither of recognition.

In this issue Katie explores the diversity of gender intersecting with human diversity.

Invites submissions from the queer community and reports on their adventures at the annual happenings at pride London!

Lets get the queer party started…

A celebration event took place today to reflect on the first phase of Trans Aware Cancer Care: a research project funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, committed to seeking better access to cancer care for the trans+ community

At this year’s first cohort meeting, we were asked to create a visual metaphor, a river of our PhD journey. These rivers could have tributaries, bridges, oxbow lakes and other features that represent issues and experiences along the way. It took me more than a few minutes to put pencil to paper, to find that my research is not a river but an ecosystem

Participants recommended that substance-use services improve accessibility by incorporating autistic-led training and adopting trauma-informed, harm-reduction approaches focused on personalized care. We suggest that future research include more in-depth interviews to cocreate resources for both substance-use service professionals and autistic individuals who engage with these services

This study suggests that more training needs to be given to health care providers and professionals around autistic experience to help improve providers’ competence in communication and providing person-centered accommodations.

We are proud to share the report and findings for our What I’d Like to Change project. Over the last year, we spoke to disabled and neurodivergent individuals and groups to hear their experiences of accessing cancer services, and what would make access better.

This season’s Autistic Revolution focuses on autonomy, understanding and learning to love ourselves. With illustrations and personal stories for queer neurodivergent people

In the first post of our series from the Queer Methodologies in Medical Humanities PhD School, researcher Katie Munday explores the radical potential of joy as a generative process in research spaces.

We’re joined on the blog by Guest Contributors, Katie Munday and Naomi Jacobs, sharing their experiences as Autistic researchers and their passion for research conducted with Autistic people, not just about Autistic people.

Trans+ people often face barriers in accessing healthcare and may be excluded from gendered cancer
screenings, e.g. individuals with both a prostate and breasts may have to choose between routine
cancer checks. With 50% of people born after 1960 expected to develop cancer, addressing these
challenges is critical. This project focused on understanding the barriers trans+ individuals face in
accessing cancer care and their experiences of the care they receive.

We shared the experiences of trans and gender-diverse autistic adults regarding belonging and unbelonging to contribute to knowledge about their lived experiences. We present findings from biographical-narrative interpretive interviews with 13 trans and gender-diverse autistic people (aged 20–50). We used reflexive thematic analysis to generate themes across three levels of belonging: macro, meso and micro. Analysis within these levels clarified (un)belonging within power dynamics and structures, as well as collective and individual identities.

The RCN Cancer forum committee worked closely with Char Goodwin and Katie Munday to update the clinical specialisms section, reviewing areas such as autism and cancer and support for those living with and beyond cancer who are neurodivergent.

Working with Char and Katie ensured that this content was up to date, reflects current practice and is clear for our members – thank you both for your work and for all the support, it has been a pleasure working with you

Only accessible for RCN members.

In this report, we have attempted to “queer the research process” by including reminders of the humanity of those involved, e.g., participants’ art and quotations from the researcher’s reflections. Simplifying people into data is useful, but at the end of the day, we are all still people. We ask that you read this report with an open mind and an open heart.

In the first of two pieces about their zine, Cervical screening for trans+ autistic people: A tool for self advocacy, researchers Georgia Rivers and Katie Munday discuss the pressing need for accessible community resources and why they chose to create one for themselves.

In this second piece about their zine, Cervical screening for trans+ autistic people: A tool for self advocacy, researchers Georgia Rivers and Katie Munday reflect on the motives for and process of their collaboration.

Cancer is more likely to be underdiagnosed and undertreated in people
with disabilities compared to non-disabled people, as shown by the Cancer Patient Experience Survey  (NHS England, 2021). Disabled people are more likely to experience stigma, discrimination and inaccessibility in healthcare, including inequalities within cancer services such as physical inaccessibility and invalidation.