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This short report presents recommendations to promote health and well-being relating to sexuality and gender diversity in autistic individuals. The recommendations were developed based on the latest available scientific knowledge coupled with a community-driven approach. An international group of autistic and non-autistic experts in the fields of autism, sexuality, and gender diversity and autistic advocates worked together to develop the initial recommendations; these recommendations were subsequently checked within the wider community through an online survey. Out of the original 11 recommendations, eight were rated above a consensus threshold. The final recommendations cover three themes: (1) providing education and information on sexuality, relationships, and gender diversity to autistic individuals and their families; (2) improving expertise in and accessibility to healthcare for sexuality, relationships, and gender-related questions, with specific attention to prevention of and support after sexual victimization; and (3) meaningful inclusion of the autism community in future research that addresses well-being related to sexuality, relationships, and gender diversity. The recommendations emphasize the need for additional awareness and offer cues to parents, professionals, and policymakers to promote sexual health and well-being of autistic individuals. Lay Abstract: In this article, we propose recommendations on what we can do to promote that autistic people can enjoy their sexuality and gender identity, because that contributes to overall well-being. First, we briefly summarize the existing research on sexuality and gender diversity in autistic individuals. Next, we propose recommendations for how to promote sexual and gender diversity-related health and well-being. Based on what is known about sexuality, gender diversity, and relationships in autistic adolescents and adults, we convened an international group of autistic and non-autistic researchers, advocate

Autistic people face more social barriers to, and experience greater anxiety around, intimate relationships than the general population in our majority neurotypical society, leading to increased loneliness and social isolation. National health and social care policies and publications should recognise these inequalities and guide service systems in reducing them. In this paper, we employ a document analysis design to analyse a cross-section of English national health and social care publications to investigate how autistic adults’ intimate lives are represented and prioritised in these publications. Most publications do not adequately and proportionally recognise or prioritise autistic people's intimate lives. They focus on the risks associated with sex and relationships and overlook autism-specific intimacy needs. They prioritise participation in the workforce while renouncing government responsibility for supporting intimate relationships which can reduce loneliness and alienation. We offer recommendations to ensure that health and social care publication processes better recognise intimate lives.

This short report presents recommendations to promote health and well-being relating to sexuality and gender diversity in autistic individuals. The recommendations were developed based on the latest available scientific knowledge coupled with a community-driven approach. An international group of autistic and non-autistic experts in the fields of autism, sexuality, and gender diversity and autistic advocates worked together to develop the initial recommendations; these recommendations were subsequently checked within the wider community through an online survey. Out of the original 11 recommendations, eight were rated above a consensus threshold. The final recommendations cover three themes: (1) providing education and information on sexuality, relationships, and gender diversity to autistic individuals and their families; (2) improving expertise in and accessibility to healthcare for sexuality, relationships, and gender-related questions, with specific attention to prevention of and support after sexual victimization; and (3) meaningful inclusion of the autism community in future research that addresses well-being related to sexuality, relationships, and gender diversity. The recommendations emphasize the need for additional awareness and offer cues to parents, professionals, and policymakers to promote sexual health and well-being of autistic individuals. Lay Abstract: In this article, we propose recommendations on what we can do to promote that autistic people can enjoy their sexuality and gender identity, because that contributes to overall well-being. First, we briefly summarize the existing research on sexuality and gender diversity in autistic individuals. Next, we propose recommendations for how to promote sexual and gender diversity-related health and well-being. Based on what is known about sexuality, gender diversity, and relationships in autistic adolescents and adults, we convened an international group of autistic and non-autistic researchers, advoc

This article presents a discursive analysis of 43 men’s narratives about paying for sex, collected using a combination of online and traditional face-to-face interview methods. It argues that the societal pressures placed on men to “perform” sexually help to produce conditions that make paying for sex desirable. Paying for sex provided men with a “safe” space where they felt exempt from expectations to display sexual experience, skill, and stamina. Moreover, men valued paid sexual encounters with experienced sex workers as spaces where they could acquire sexual experience and skills to better approximate idealised versions of heteronormative male sexuality. The article explores the emotional aspects tied up in men’s desires to pay for sex and attends to the question of power within the paid sexual encounter, shedding light on the complexities, nuances and multiplicities within client-sex worker relationships. In conclusion, this paper discusses the value of addressing the broader social structures, sites such as media, online spaces, and medical industries, where heteronormative discourses on male sexual “performance” continue to be reproduced and maintained.