What Do You Assume to Be True About ________________?

I asked my students to do a difficult thing.  I asked them to write a blog post about their assumption(s) about a particular human population, how they acquired that assumption, and what they think will be the most difficult challenge that they will have in doing research on the population that they have selected.  I asked them to be as truthful as possible, and assured them that I was not going to tell them that they were wrong in voicing their assumptions. 

To be fair, since I asked my students to put themselves out there, I will put myself out there, too.  As this post will be somewhat public, I will apologize in advance for whatever I express here; it is not intended to offend anyone.  If anyone has any resources that could educate me better on the topic I am about to address, that would be great.

While it is possible for anyone of any race, any religion, any nationality, etc., to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), I have this assumption that someone has to have a certain level of intelligence (as would be defined on a standard IQ assessment) to be LGBT.  This is because, of all of the LGBT people I have met in my life, I have yet to meet an LGBT person with Down's syndrome or developmental disabilities.  I have met LGBT people with physical disabilities, hearing impairments, visual impairments, autism, Asperger's syndrome, chronic depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, addiction problems...but no LGBT people living in group homes due to Down's syndrome or developmental disabilities.

Prior to writing this blog post, I had casually looked for books or journal articles that would prove the existence (or not) of LGBT people with Down's syndrome or developmental disabilities, and found none.  Even in books that address how to teach people with Down's syndrome and developmental disabilities about sexuality (as many people with Down's syndrome and developmental disabilities do form intimate relationships, and some marry), none of the books address how to discuss what it means to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender with a developmentally disabled person.

The more I think about this, the more I wonder if LGBT people with Down's syndrome or developmental disabilities exist at all.  I also wonder whether or not there truly is a relationship between "intelligence" (which I do not have a good definition for at the moment...I will have to work on that) and LGBT identity.  If I cannot find evidence in books, journals, or websites, the greatest challenge to doing research on this topic will be locating people with Down's syndrome and developmental disabilities who would be willing and/or able to talk about this issue. It is difficult to know even what their attitudes on this topic would be; if they live in group homes or other supervised care settings, it is possible that I would be denied permission to talk with them about it.  I will have to find out more.