‘Coming out’ on the spectrum: autism, identity and disclosure

Much has been written by queer theorists about the personal and political ramifications of being out of the closet, and connections with experiences of disclosure for those with ‘hidden’ health conditions have been made by researchers studying critical geographies of disabilities and chronic illness. To date, however, the impact of such issues for those on the autism spectrum (AS) has received comparatively little attention. Popular re-presentations of AS suggest disclosure is irrelevant for those assumed so obviously different and unlikely to pass as ‘normal.’ However, AS authors reveal a broad spectrum of experience indicating that concealment and disclosure are complex and selective strategies of information and identity management. Applying discourse analysis to AS autobiographies and personal narratives, this paper explores four sense-making discourse clusters, or repertoires, that emerge from the texts under study: a ‘keeping safe’ repertoire, which addresses protective strategies in disclosure and coming out; a ‘qualified deception’ repertoire, which relates to the complexities of non-disclosure; a ‘like/as resistance’ repertoire, which captures the tendency of AS authors to position their individual and collective experiences of coming out on the spectrum as analogous to the process of coming out for other marginalized groups, most notably gay and Deaf communities; and an ‘education’ repertoire, which contributes to the project of building a community to come out to. Each of these repertoires is situated within the broader literature in social and cultural geography and critical disability studies.