Is homosexuality a form of autism/wiring?

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Sorry, I wish I had some better advice to give.

I am sincerely curious. How do you feel they are related?
The reason I ask is that I have alexithymia (which correlates strongly with autism) and I am asexual. That is I have never felt sexual feelings towards another and there is nothing medically wrong with me. I don't know how to put it but that combination of alexithymia and asexuality sometimes makes me feel not quite human almost robotic.
Do you feel that way?

I agree with everything you just said.
I guess my point is that I believe (with absolutely no proof or evidence! it's just my opinion...) that everyone is born with the "seeds" of both homo- and heterosexuality. Whether or not these seeds develop into strong preferences as an adult depends on a lot of factors. Obviously I don't have all the answers though.

moved from General Autism Discussion to LGBT Discussion

I think the idea that homosexuality or hetrosexuality are defined at birth is ridiculous. I would say there's a split between nature and nurture on this and most other things. I reckon Freud was on to something significant and believe most of who we are is learnt as we are growing up. Sexuality is not as black and white as people like to think. I reckon if people were honest with themselves they would agree that it is dynamic and is capable of changing during life.

I believe that sexual orientation is hard-wired into the brain, at least to some extent--but I don't believe that sexual orientation is as simple as being either heterosexual or homosexual.

I don't think there is a biological connection between autism and sexuality.

I do think that there is a small similarity between mainstream society's ever-changing views on homosexuality and their ever-changing views about autism:

Homosexuality was considered a mental disorder for many years--it wasn't completely removed from the DSM until 1986;

Autism was considered to be a form of psychosis, included in the DSM as "childhood schizophrenia" (and widely presumed to be caused by neurosis or poor upbringing) until 1980.

The similarity I see is that both forms of natural human variation were automatically pathologized and grossly misunderstood.

See, I don't believe that for a second. I can't believe it. It doesn't make sense to me because I've always found myself attracted to females(even though I feel a lot of times they're crazy, and my life would be simpler if I wasn't attracted to them and therefore didn't have to deal with them. At one point in my life I almost considered swearing off females entirely, but I can't. I'm attracted to females. I'm not at all attracted to males. I can't look at a man and get turned on. I can watch a male and a female having sex and get turned on, but if that female isn't there, it doesn't work. I didn't wake up one day and decide "Hey, boobies and vaginas are cool/attractive today." It's just always been that way. I believe that your sexuality is determined by what you're attracted to.

I was "molested" at the age of 9 by a friend of my brother. I put the word molested in quotes because to me, molestation implies that it's unwanted and unpleasant, sort of like rape. How I feel about that situation is that my brother's friend taught me how to masturbate and that my penis was for more than urinating. I don't feel that what he did was right necessarily, but I don't really see it as this terrible thing he did to me either. Later on, but long before I ever had any shred of hope in finding a girlfriend, I met a friend, and at some point(don't even ask how this ever came up in conversation because I don't know) we discovered that the same thing happened to both of us earlier in life, and it was done by the exact same person. Anyway, we fooled around sexually sometimes, but it was never anything romantic in any way. I never found him or any other male attractive. The best way I can describe what went on is that it was like this: " Look, we're both not going to have any girlfriends any time soon, and we're both horny thanks to being teenagers full of hormones. You scratch my back, I scratch yours."

I'm not gay or bisexual. I'm only attracted to females. You can make a choice to perform homosexual acts, but that doesn't make you a homosexual. And I've heard of situations where one person gets sick of dealing with the opposite sex and says "screw guys/girls, I'm gonna be a lesbian/I'm gay now." I feel in situations like these, there are two possibilities. Either this person finally realized they really are gay/bisexual, or they simply do it out of frustration and aren't really gay/bisexual at all, but they feel their lives will be somehow made easier by acting that way.

I will never again engage in any sort of homosexual activity, but not because I think it's wrong or an abomination or whatever, but rather because it doesn't feel right for me(and I just love vagina too much), and because I'm simply not attracted to males. I could never kiss another man or lie in bed and hold one, cuddle with one. It would just feel too weird and awkward to me. But I have nothing against homosexuals whatsoever. If one just starts touching me unexpectedly for no reason, then I'd have a problem, but the same would go for any female who does the same(although I'm not sure I'd be upset about the female touching me if I'm not in a relationship at the time, and for some reason I haven't had the opportunity to find out).

I'm asexual because I don't want to be tied down. Compromise is not a part of my voculabary. It IS my way or the highway. I lack empathy (although I wonder if that's from being abused as a child and having to learn how to catch oneself when one fell) and theory-of-mind is an alien concept to me which is probably why I can't master compromise. The only kids I was ever able to make friends with were kids who were total pushovers.

Don't waste your time, Dark Lord is a self-confessed troll.

Thanks for sharing your story, DerStadtschutz... food for thought!

Whatever that is your opinion. Thanks for your non contribution.

I would say sexuality is more likely to be non polarised for aspies.. As generally logic driven people they may view sex as sex and not apply social expectations and emotives.

To be honest the only thing stopping homosexual acts from occurring is your social training. The physical and chemical sensations produced from the various sex acts will still feel as good. Alcohol and confinement often overcome these barriers .

The only real defining thing is attraction , are you attracted to the same or opposite sex more (or both!).

It is typical of society to box people up into neat categories , straight / gay etc.

B

They may both be caused by brain wiring & genetics. But homosexuality & autism are not linked. The sexuality gamut in the autistic pop. spans as much if not more than the NT pop. or at least we cluster in different spots in many cases. But their are plenty of straight, etc. aspies/auties.

I don't have alexithymia, but I am asexual and I don't feel certain emotions (enduring hatred, embarrassment, etc) and don't get emotional reactions from hearing instrumental music. I consider myself human, but I keep running into people who define humanity by feelings I don't have, which really upsets me.

This one study I found showed that asexuality and bisexuality are both correlated with autism, but homosexuality isn't. I've posted it before on this study, but I could dig it up again if you'd like.

Incidentally, I have a theory about sexual orientation. No idea if it's true or not, but it would explain some things. My theory is:

How hardwired your sexuality is varies from person to person. Some people are pretty much born with whatever sexual orientation they have, gay, straight, bisexual, asexual or whatever, and pretty much nothing in their upbringing could change that. Other people, they may have a hardwired tendency but various experiences can shape their sexuality and cause it to shift.

This would explain:

* the failure of 'conversion attempts' on gays and others with atypical sexuality - chances are most people with a mutable sexuality will have the majority sexuality because that's what is socialized, unless they have a very unusual upbringing

* societal differences in the expression of various sexualities, such as pederasty in Ancient Greece - if most people have mutable sexuality, then individual societies may have different kinds of sexuality without any genetic differences

* Rule 34 sexualities - there is no way being sexually attracted to Pikachu (for example) is hardwired, because prior to a couple decades ago we didn't have Pikachu, but if you have a mutable sexuality you may be able to become sexually attracted to almost anything given the right conditions

Any thoughts on that theory? (Note: I'm not saying anything about the goodness or badness of one's sexuality based on whether it's hardwired or mutable. I think there are good and bad forms of both.)

[James fails to read the "Do Not Feed the Troll" sign]

You are, of course, free to believe anything that you want to believe. Billions of people believe things that are patently untrue.

The empirical evidence is solidly against you--repeated physiological and psychological studies in peer reviewed journals have demonstrated a variety of empirical, measurable differences between people with different sexual orientations. From the anatomical structure of the hippocampus to sexual response to visual and aural stimuli, gay people are demonstrably different from straight people. (And bisexual people are different from gay people).

Were sexual orientation a question of deliberate choice, then there would be no observable anatomical difference, nor an observable difference in sexual response.

Making no assumptions about your sexual orientation, I presume, nonetheless, that you are attracted to some members of the sex(es) that attract you, and not to others. Do you make a choice to be attracted to some features and not to others? Does a young, straight man decide one day that he is going to be a "breast man" while another chooses to be a "leg man?"

Are you capable of deciding to be attracted to the gender that you are not currently attracted to? If you are straight, can you suddenly decide to be gay?

But by all means, carry on in your beliefs--you are free to hold them, regardless of what the evidence might tell you.

I don't think Autism increases your chances of being gay. I think maybe some Autistics can be bicurious. I'm not gay nor bicurious, but because I get obsessions with people, I've often been mistaken for gay because I've had obsessions over women before, but I don't have the same feelings for women as I do men. I fancy a lot of men, and I have that special feeling for them, but if I'm obsessed with women I don't have any special feeling at all. It's probably just me being jealous if they're confident or pretty and I'm just a stupid unconfident Aspie. It's normal for women to admire eachother. My mum always says that women often check other women out, to see what sort of clothes they're wearing, to see how fat or thin they are, and to see how pretty they are. It's nothing to do with homosexuality. I even hear women in my family or women at work have a conversation about how big other women's boobs or bum is compared to their own.

When I think about bringing a nice man into my bed with me, a luscious thought goes through me, and I almost melt with sexual fantasy. I've even dreamt of penises before, and of me snogging the men I fancy, but I've never had that kind of dream about a women before. Um, yuk!