Autism Speaks: it just got worse

September 23, 10:30 PMLong Island Autism ExaminerMarc Rosen

A couple of weeks ago, readers were offered a cursory glance at why autistics hate Autism Speaks.  Of course, the two biggest reasons were listed, but a new one, one that's as bad as Autism Every Day (if not worse), has just been released.  It's called "I Am Autism", and it worsens stereotypes both about autism itself and the autistic community.  First, it portrays autism in an evil and criminal light, with lines like "I know where you live", "I know no religion, no morality, no currency", "I work faster than pediatric AIDS, diabetes, and cancer combined", "I have no interest in right and wrong", and "I'll make sure your marriage fails".  Then, it attempts to portray the "autism community" as this united front of warriors battling against some magical demon named Autism.  In the words of Ari Ne'eman, autistic adult and president of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, "This is the latest in a series of unethical fundraising strategies adopted by Autism Speaks.  This type of fear mongering hurts autistic people, by raising fear and not contributing in the slightest to accurate understanding of the needs of autistic adults and children."  Other autistics who commented expressed their discontent in manners too colorful to quote here.  Sarah, a blogger at Cat in a Dog's World, remarks "Autism Speaks seems to think that parents' embarrassment at their kids' meltdowns is more important than autistic kids' pain.  Autistic people deserve better than what Autism Speaks has to offer."  I agree with her wholeheartedly.  Autism Speaks has shown, through everything from co-founder Suzanne Wright's statement that Autism Speaks is "dedicated to eradicating autism," to Autism Every Day and I Am Autism, that they may as well be classified as a hate group.  In fact, most autistics (including this one) do classify them as being no different from a certain bunch of Germans from the 30s and 40s, who had a similar desire to eradicate what they considered to be defects in the human race.  When they're blowing $52 million a year, they have a responsibility to autistic people to do right by them.  Autism Speaks has NEVER done right by autistic people, and most likely never will.  At best, they will make small token gestures in an attempt to disarm their critics without making any fundamental changes to how they operate.  Bob and Suzanne Wright, you say you're listening, so listen to this: we are autistics, and autism is us.  There is no way to make autism some separate entity from any child or adult.  When you criminalize and dehumanize "autism", you are saying that your kids, your siblings, your family members who are autistic, are not human.  You are criminalizing THEM.  You are dehumanizing THEM.  There is no such thing as "the specter of autism".  There's just us, even though you can't accept that.  We're speaking for ourselves, and we're telling you to shut up.  So, why do you continue to speak out in denial of our voices?  I watched the video first with the sound off, and got the impression in the first part of kids who are happy on their own.  Then, I had the sound on, and I became ill.  Autism Speaks was trying to portray these happy kids as somehow being sinister and evil, part of some demonic hive-mind that they had decided to call "autism".  The second half only made things worse, falsely portraying some imaginary "autism community" that's united in a mission to eradicate autism, and thus autistic people, from this world.  To most autistics, it sounds very similar to what a certain bunch of Germans who favored the swastika as their symbol tried to do with Jews, Gypsies, Polish people, political opponents, GLBT people, and people with disabilities.  All were deemed lives unworthy of life by this group, and over 12 million were murdered.  Afterwards, people swore "never again".  Well, in that spirit, we must never again allow Autism Speaks to attempt to say they speak for people who already have their own voices.