Exploring Developmental Milestones of LGBTQIA+ Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) 

• Lauren Fogle, Psychology, University of Delaware

• Eric Layland, Education and Human Development, University of Delaware

My research examines the developmental timelines of LGBTQIA+ youth and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; n=41) in relation to their sexual and gender identities. The Queer Joy Study was used to gather information for this project, and it is a national survey that encourages queer individuals ages 16 and up to share impactful and empowering experiences related to their sexual and gender identities. It includes socialization questions where participants indicate at what age they experienced key developmental milestones based on their gender and sexual identity. These questions include the following experiences: feeling different from others, gaining self-awareness, publicly identifying, embracing identity, and first queer joy experience. The ages provided as well as the self-description information provided by the response to these questions will be utilized as the majority of the data. Participants, on average, felt different from others at ages 12 (sex ID) and 11 (gen ID), became self-aware at ages 15 (sex ID) and 19 (gen ID), publicly identified at ages 19 (sex ID) and 22 (gen ID), embraced these identities at ages 20 (sex ID) and 22 (gen ID), and first felt queer joy at age 18. Early feelings of difference and the extended process of identity acceptance underscore the need for supportive and educational environments from a young age that can help foster both their neurodivergent identity as well as their LGBTQIA+ identity. Through the continuation of this project, I aim to uncover additional patterns within this subgroup and plan to conduct future comparative analyses with other subgroups present in the Queer Joy Study.