On being (not so) different: Perceptions of gender dysphoria and neurodiversity among people aged 15-35 in Sweden

Fatih Özel^1*Gabriele Griffin²

• ¹Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden
• ²Centre for Gender Research, Faculty of Arts, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden

There has been an increase in the number of people experiencing gender dysphoria and neurodiversity over the last decade. Medical studies employing quantitative methodologies consistently report a high co-occurrence of gender diversity and neurodiversity. Simultaneously various sociocultural views have been proposed to understand these conditions together. Still, there is limited evidence on how this co-occurrence is experienced by individuals with gender dysphoria. This article aims to investigate how gender dysphoria and neurodivergent conditions, specifically autism, are articulated and perceived by people aged 15-35 experiencing gender dysphoria in Sweden. Sixteen semi-structured interviews, conducted between August 2023 and March 2024, were analyzed using thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke's approach. According to the themes identified in our data, the participants recognized themselves as divergent, with some suspecting that they might be neurodivergent. They were also familiar with the commonly reported co-occurrence of gender diversity and neurodiversity. Lastly, our participants discussed the intersectional relation between gender diversity and neurodiversity predomiantly as a social rather than a clinical phenomenon, with neurodiversity in some instances seen as facilitating gender diversity. Our findings may reflect a newly emerging perspective on how the co-existence of gender diversity and neurodiversity is interpreted by those experiencing gender dysphoria.