“These Experiences also Relate to my Neurodiverse Identity”: An Intersectional Understanding of Heterosexist Events Among Autistic-LGBTQ+ Individuals

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Maroney, M. R., Chickerella, R., Coombs, E., Levitt, H. M., & Horne, S. G. (2025). “These Experiences also Relate to my Neurodiverse Identity”: An Intersectional Understanding of Heterosexist Events Among Autistic-LGBTQ+ Individuals. Autism in Adulthood. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2024.0326

Publication date: 16 Apr 2025 Added to AutiHub: 9 Aug 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
5
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 5 (20.0%)

Abstract

Background:Given the high likelihood of Autistic individuals also being sexual and gender minorities, it is important to understand how Autistic-LGBTQ+ people understand prejudice events in the context of their intersectional identities. Methods:In this study, we used reflexive thematic analysis guided by an intersectional lens to explore experiences of heterosexism among 49 Autistic-LGBTQ+ adults. Specifically, we explored two issues as follows: (1) the nature of the heterosexist events they experienced and (2) the identities Autistic LGBTQ participants thought were related to a distressing heterosexist event they had experienced. Results:Heterosexist events were characterized by four themes, including rejection, harassment, invalidation, and discrimination. Participants often felt that several identities were salient when considering their heterosexist event. The four themes that described the experience of intersectional stressors for Autistic-LGBTQ+ participants are abbreviated here as follows: (1) assumptions about autism, (2) gender “as a bit of a double blow,” (3) queerness as “abhorrent,” and (4) “too young to know better.” Conclusion:We use intersectionality theory to frame stigma experiences for Autistic people who are also sexual and gender minorities, exploring clinical implications and future directions for research.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 13:58.

Cited references
61
With a DOI
58
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
3
4 / 61 (6.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
2 / 61 (3.3%)
References with detected author names
60 / 61 (98.4%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
2
Without a stable identifier
3
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
205
From DOI or external metadata
205
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
98 / 205 (47.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 107 / 205 (52.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
10 / 205 (4.9%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 10 / 98 (10.2%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 10 / 191 (5.2%).
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