Att balansera mellan autenticitet och trygghet : En intervjustudie om autistiska transpersoners levda erfarenheter och perspektiv, och upplevelser av den svenska transvården

Sammanfattning: This study examines the perspectives and intersectional lived experiences of sevenparticipants who all identify as autistic trans people. This has been accomplished through seven semi-structured interviews, a theoretical framework of critical autistic and transperspectives, and prior research on experiences of Swedish trans healthcare and international research on autistic trans peoples experiences. My aim has been to analyze the embodied experiences and perspectives regarding how the participants define and understand autism and trans; if they find that there exist important intersections between their autistic and trans identities and experiences; and what power structures and discourses that shape their view and experiences of the Swedish trans health care and how it treats autistic clients. The conclusions from my analysis were that the informants perceive autism to be aform of embodied subjectivity shaped by a neurodivergent cognitive perception that often leads to different kinds of norm-nonconforming behaviors, and that trans is an all-encompassing term that includes the lived experiences of people who don’t identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, and the empowering acts of regaining the control of one's own life narrative and one's body. The participants don't perceive there to be a intersectional medical link between autism and trans — that one causes the other — but rather that both experiences can help one in understanding the other. Several of the participants discuss how their autistic subjectivity and the societal experiences that come with it have been key in realizing and understanding their trans identities. The participants view that there are many societal prejudices, myths and false discourses regarding autism and trans that are prevalent in the Swedish trans health care system, and fear that the knowledge of them being autistic will negatively impact their prospects to be granted gender affirming care. They view the Swedish trans health care system not as a supporting societal function, but rather as a normative biopolitical function that control, regulate and disempower trans people and trans bodies through grueling evaluations. My suggestions for further research is researching experiences of socioeconomic inequality among autistic trans people, and interdisciplinary research on creating accommodating procedures and strategies for autistic trans clients in trans health caresystems.