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ASAN protest against Autism Speaks is highly successful
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On Tuesday, November 17, Autism Speaks had their fundraising concert at Carnegie Hall, with Jerry Seinfeld and Bruce Springsteen headlining. Celebrity attendees included actor Chris Meloni, radio show host Howard Stern, and infamous real estate mogul Donald Trump, who was noted as almost storming past protesters distributing flyers and holding signs outside the event. In less than two hours time, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network distributed over a thousand flyers to passersby, raising awareness of the issues Autism Speaks creates for autistic people, and ignoring the heckling from random Autism Speaks executives who would come out to yell at them. One even shouted "What was around before Autism Speaks?!" A brief internet search revealed that there are several autism advocacy organizations that are not only more reputable, but have been around well before Autism Speaks, including the AHA association on Long Island. ASAN, along with 59 other disability rights organizations, recently drafted and signed an open letter to Autism Speaks demanding, among other things, that they change their board of directors from having zero autistic adults to having at least 50% of their board consist of autistic adults, and that they stop spending their money on genetic research geared towards the design of a prenatal test that would allow parents to abort potentially autistic fetuses. One protester remarked "We know that people with tickets for this are going to go in anyway. We're hoping that after hearing what we have to say, they'll give their money to groups that actually deserve it from now on."
Interview with an ASAN protester
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