Gender is a social construct, which means a person’s gender is determined neither by genetics or society but by the individual. Gender is not sex, for while sex determines whether a person is female, male, or intersex, gender doesn’t determine anything. People determine their gender. You are the gender you see yourself as. Gender can be fluid for some, can change: someone who identifies as a man may one day discover that they now identify as a woman, as nonbinary, transgender, or genderqueer.
Because gender is illogical and the autistic mind is logical, gender diversity is common in autism. Many autists identify with autigender. Autigender means that a person’s gender is influenced by their autism, by being autistic. Though not every autist identifies as autigender, the term is validating as it enables an understanding of why autists are more likely than their neurotypical peers to identify with gender diversity.
Autigender also enables autistic pride, which enables autists to show up as their full self, avoiding masking, and politely correcting others when misgendered, especially in workplace settings that encourage gender conformity via dress code and behavioral norms.
I identify as nonbinary, or agender, as I cannot place myself within constructs. Similarly, I identify as aracial. I’m also asexual. In many ways, I see myself as a neutral person. Until I accepted my autism and began to learn about my neurotype, my neutral identity confused me.
That people determined me a straight black male only further confused me. I’m now aware of how logical my autistic mind is, and how illogical most constructs are, having met many autists and other neurodivergents whose minds diverge from the flow of society, which lives by rigid rules such as gender binaries, as if gender and sex are the same thing.
Sex is not gender, as sex is biological. There are several sexes, but there are over seven billion genders, as gender, like autism, like any identity, is an individualized matter. Each person wears their own gender, and each gender, each person, is perfectly valid in accepting and announcing any gender identity that suits them, whether at home, in their community, or in their workplace.
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