Autisexual is a sexual orientation on the asexual spectrum defined as when one's autism greatly affects one's sexuality, or how one experiences sexual attraction. Autisexual is not autism as a sexuality, nor is it attraction to autistic people, but rather describes an experience of sexuality that is so heavily influenced by being autistic that one's autism and one's experience of sexuality cannot be unlinked. Autisexual is under the neurosexual umbrella.
Autistic people's sexuality can be influenced by being autistic in many ways. The social normativity and construction of sexuality as a concept, and how it is often described, are frequently things that neurodivergent people cannot relate to, particularly autistic people, because of their neurodivergence. Emphasis on sexuality and labeling of sexuality in a neurotypical or allistic way may not be things that autistic people understand or wish to participate in. The intersection of sexuality with neurodivergence, mental and physical illness, chronic illness, or disabilities is often disregarded. Individuals with any of those experiences, in this case autistic people, may be misunderstood or face ableism because of allistic and neurotypical ideas of how other facets of one's identity affect and intersect with sexuality.
There are many people who may feel like being autistic influences their experience, perception, or understanding of sexuality. There are many studies that show that autistic people are more likely to be not straight.[1][2][3] Autistic people may also face unique challenges in coming out. Autisexuality is a way to express this and to find others with similar experiences of sexuality.
Similar labels that may also fall under the umbrella of autisexual are autigay, autiace, and autiqueer. Since autism is a spectrum, autisexual can be an umbrella term for specific intersections between autism and sexual attraction. Autism can also affect one's relationship with gender, which gave rise to more people using the term autigender.
Not all autistic people identify as autisexual, only those whose sexuality is influenced by them being autistic. Autisexual is exclusive to autistic people, as allistic people cannot have their sexual attraction influenced by autism. The romantic equivalent is autiromantic.
History
Autisexual was originally coined on March 2, 2018, by an anonymous user via beyond-mogai-pride-flags on Tumblr.[4]
It was coined again on April 29, 2018 to mean "autistic person attracted to only autistic people", akin to auti4auti. It was coined by mxcellanywriter on their personal website.[5]
Autisexual was coined by Gracey#9766, Lapis/Leah (llama godess)#0905, and LittleRaptorLadies#7650 on Discord on June 26, 2021.
Flag
The autisexual flag was uploaded by user IMakeFlags on July 26, 2021. The purple stripes represent asexuality, yellow stripes represent sexuality, and the rainbow infinity symbol symbolizes the intersection of autism and queerness.
Another autisexual flag was made on July 23, 2021 by rainbowsheepdesigns on Tumblr. It is based on the red, orange, yellow, light blue, dark blue autigender flag. The colors represent diversity in the autism community in terms of personality and actions.[6]
Resources
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/gender-and-sexuality-in-autism-explained/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/adults-autism-traits-reject-conventional-sexual-labels/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29159906/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/https://beyond-mogai-pride-flags.tumblr.com/post/171468941385/so-how-does-this-sound-something-like-autigender
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/https://mxcellany.com/2018/04/29/autisexual/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/https://autigender-culture-is.tumblr.com/post/657543105933869058/so-last-time-i-checked-the-lgbta-wiki-didnt-hav e