‘I used to think that everyone else had got a manual about it but I missed out’: navigating intimacies in the lives of young autistic LGBT+ persons

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Toft, A ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3734-2242, 2023. ‘I used to think that everyone else had got a manual about it but I missed out’: navigating intimacies in the lives of young autistic LGBT+ persons. UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This article explores intimate relationships in the lives of young people (16-25) who are autistic and LGBT+. Using data collected from 15 participants, including interviews and diaries, the article explores how such relationships work in everyday life and the negotiations that occur. Friendships were highlighted as the most important relationships in the participants lives due to their flexibility and non-reliance on social scripts, unlike more intimate relationships which were leaden with expectation and presumption. However, the stories of the participants suggest that popularised conceptions of friendship are unhelpful and frame their relationships as deficient. There is a call for a more flexible approach to friendship which is inclusive of neurodivergency, and a recognition that existing models are exclusory.

Item Type:	Working paper
Description:	Platform: ResearchGate
Creators:	Toft, A.
Date:	4 August 2023
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.13140/RG.2.2.34929.25444 DOI 1789252 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	14 Aug 2023 08:28
Last Modified:	14 Aug 2023 08:28
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/49544