Knowing Otherwise: Conceptualizations, Experiences, and Possibilities of Queer Autistic Gender and Sexuality
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 markerSydney, M. (2026). Knowing Otherwise: Conceptualizations, Experiences, and Possibilities of Queer Autistic Gender and Sexuality [Dissertation]. Vancouver Island University. https://doi.org/10.25316/ir-21014
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Abstract
This thesis examines how 10 queer autistic adults located in Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America conceptualize and experience gender and sexuality and what enables more positive outcomes across personal, relational, environmental, institutional, and systemic levels. Using semi-structured interviews and follow-up focus groups, I conducted thematic analysis grounded in collaborative meaning-making. Autoethnographic reflection situates my lived experience within this collective narrative. Findings synthesize contributors’ accounts into a Queer Autistic Positive Outcomes Framework that identifies enabling conditions, describes queer autistic worldmaking as transformative, and maps outcomes that challenge dominant biomedical and deficit-based framings. Contributors describe thriving as collective and relational, made possible through safety, self-acceptance, and community care, while identifying systemic harms that constrain possibility. This study contributes to critical autism and queer scholarship by centering queer autistic lived experience as epistemic authority and offering an applied framework for more just, affirming research and practice.
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