I'm a gay tistic. We're actually more mon than you'd believe.

Contents:

• THE CHALLENGE OF BEG GAY AND AUTISTIC
• I, A GAY AUTISTIC MAN, AM SHARG 5 THGS ABOUT MY INTERSECTNAL INTY
• GAY TISTICS EXIST, AND WE NEED A NAME
• "AS A GAY TISTIC MAN, IS ALMOST AS IF I HAVE TWO INTI."

THE CHALLENGE OF BEG GAY AND AUTISTIC

A higher percentage of tistic people intify as lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, or queer (LGBTQ) than the general populatn, acrdg to rearch studi. Studi vary wily on the percentage of people wh tism who are gay, lbian, or bisexual. Jt, who did not want his last name ed, disvered high school that he was both tistic and gay.

“I knew what beg gay was, but I personally lacked the emotnal self-awarens for a while until I realized that’s what I was feelg toward other guys, ” he explas. “I wasn’t openly gay high school bee I spected very strongly I would be attacked, ” he says.

High school stunts found that those who are gay, lbian, and bisexual are almost twice as likely to be bullied at school and onle as heterosexual stunts are. Shortly after high school, Smh me out to her fay as a gay man.

I, A GAY AUTISTIC MAN, AM SHARG 5 THGS ABOUT MY INTERSECTNAL INTY

The group wh ASD reported higher rat of homosexualy, bisexualy and asexualy, but lower rat of heterosexualy. Rearch suggts that dividuals wh Autism Spectm Disorr (ASD) report creased homosexualy, bisexualy, and asexualy, but creased heterosexualy. He said rather exasperatedly, “If you aren’t gay, nobody is!

I often wonr what would have happened if we had unrstood each other, but havg tism spectm disorr I have missed a lot of relatnship opportuni bee of my abily to rrectly terpret nonverbal social n be a problem for anybody who has tism, but ’s pecially tough when to those of who are gay, bi, lbian and trans.

GAY TISTICS EXIST, AND WE NEED A NAME

Compound this wh the stigma beg gay has our culture, and you have a suatn where beg gay and tistic n feel very lonely — like a pilatn of missed opportuni to fd a tried so hard he even mooned me once ont of other guys, but at that time was hopels.

But I'm not referrg to beg gay -- y, I'm gay -- but my story is also about a send, simultaneo closet: I was 40, a lifelong iend, who is cintally a psychotherapist, suggted I might be tistic. This is the pot where I learned the parallels of my experience as a gay man and that of beg 1973, the year I was born, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn voted to remove homosexualy om s list of mental illns. A father of morn psychotherapy, Sigmund Frd, believed that homosexualy and paranoia were separable.

"AS A GAY TISTIC MAN, IS ALMOST AS IF I HAVE TWO INTI."

What he nsired "symptoms" of homosexualy were very often a reactn to livg an outst life shadows: secln, low self-worth, and self-stctive behavr. Homosexuals were subjected to behavral nversn therapy, shock therapy, jectns, beatgs, removal om imagary talysts, and social shamg to drive the gay out of very thgs currently happen the tism world.

But as wh homosexualy, we now know through better science that tism has a geic and environmental basis. It is for this reason that today we don't say I have homosexualy. No, I am a homosexual.

Likewise, I don't have tism -- I am a gay man who grew up the transnal s, I am keenly aware of the parallels: the fear, the ignorance, the sire to be out private but closeted public. Each of the dynamic artistic/scientific pneers displayed well-known characteristics of homosexualy and tism, but sadly we may never know their stat for sure, sce intifitn was not an optn or stigma prevented even is no wonr then that when my psychotherapist iend suggted I might be tistic, I had never heard of Asperger's syndrome -- which, I learned after a thorough five-hour examatn -- is the specific tegory of my type of 's right, this day and age, wh my penchant for all thgs science and beg a hopels news junkie, I had never heard of what I am.