ASAN has one celebrity supporter

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Kim Rhodes’ voice crackles with static as she calls me from her car. The actress, best known for her recurring role in the long-running show Supernatural, promises me that she’s “hands-free and breathing deeply,” but she scarcely pauses for breath as she launches into her story. Rhodes is the mother of an autistic girl, and, a few years ago, she tells me, she tweeted her support for the annual “Light It Up Blue” campaign, sponsored by the mega-charity Autism Speaks. Some of her autistic fans quickly interceded. They told her that Autism Speaks was controversial, even hated, within some segments of the self-advocate community, thanks principally to its focus on curing autism.
“My immediate response was: ‘Screw you, shut up.’ That’s a horrible admission, but that’s the truth. But because the people who came to me [are people] I know within the fandom of Supernatural, they were able to say to me, ‘Look — your actions are not consistent with who you say you want to be.’” Now, Rhodes is a passionate supporter of both individual self advocates and groups like the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.

Listening, Rhodes tells me, hasn’t always been easy. “It was painful to hear at first. Every parent wants to be right. Every advocate wants to be an ally. For me, it’s more important to listen to the experts than for me to be told I am an expert.” The key, Rhodes says, is that she was approached with kindness and by people with whom she felt she already had a connection, who told her, “We can see you love your kid, let us help you with the language she speaks.” When an autistic person said, “You know, I wish my mom had known what I’m telling you,” Rhodes took that seriously and changed her whole approach to parenting and advocacy.

https://psmag.com/what-should-you-do-wh ... 2834a938f9

Supernatural is a show about two brothers — Sam and Dean Winchester — who fight monsters. They’ve imprisoned Lucifer, killed Death, and, last season, defeated God’s sister. In between these epic arc plots, they fight vampires, ghosts, werewolves, low-ranking demons, and other scary creatures. It’s now been on the air for 12 seasons, making it the longest-running fantasy show in television history, and a top-25 show in terms of duration overall. It’s kept alive by a devoted community of fans united by, of all things, a commitment to social justice. Sure, the actors are dreamy and the quips good, but when I attended a convention in Minneapolis, I was struck by how consistently the stars and fans alike were talking about disability, mental health, and other key causes. Moreover, they were doing so in a way that focused on support for diversity, rather than a quest for a cure. The Supernatural commitment to social justice is about identity, not charity.