Marking LGBT+ History Month 2024
This year's theme for LGBT+ History Month is medicine and healthcare.
As an organisation in the healthcare and education sectors, MacIntyre both provides support for and employs neurodivergent people.
Our Diversity Advisory Group works to raise awareness of issues around equity, diversity and inclusion. For LGBT+ History Month this year, we've been reflecting on the link between LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse identities.
LGBTQ+ and Neurodiversity
As more research is done on the topic of the link between neurodiversity and LGBTQ+ identities it is becoming increasingly clear that there is some correlation between the two.
The Office of National Statistics suggests that around 3% of the UK population identifies as LGBTQ+ (thought it is likely that this is an underrepresented statistic) and between 15% and 20% of the population is neurodivergent in some way.
Studies show that autistic people are three to six times more likely to identify as transgender, and more widely that neurodiverse people in general are eight times more likely to be asexual.
Mistaken medical assumptions
Medical professionals and wider society as a whole have often wrongfully attributed the LGBTQ+ identities of autistic people to assumptions that they are simply confused, that they are being manipulated or that they are not capable of having such introspection on their gender identity. A 2018 study showed that one third of respondents said their gender identity had been questioned and doubted due to their autism.
Why the connection?
Despite the mounting evidence that there is indeed a link between being neurodiverse and having an LGBTQ+ identity, researchers are still unsure as to why this link exists.
One theory is that neurodivergent people may feel freer and more comfortable expressing themselves under the LGBTQ+ umbrella in a society that assumed and enforced a heterosexual and cisgender default.
Respect, understanding and encouragement
For us, it becomes important that we respect, understand and encourage expression of all kinds. In order to enable the people we support to live lives that make sense to them we need to make sure that they feel comfortable and able to explore and express their own unique identity – whatever that looks like for them.
References
If you would like to find out more about this topic, here are some helpful links to studies and academic research:
- The Brain Charity - LGBTQIA+ and neurodiversity
- Spectrum News - report on 2020 study
- Nature Communications 2020 article
- Wiley Online Library article
