A MUST READ: The Autism Rights Movement!

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The New Wave of Autism Rights Activists --New York Magazine
A new wave of activists wants to celebrate atypical brain function as a positive identity, not a disability. Opponents call them dangerously deluded.

The Autism Rights Movement- By Andrew Solomon - Published May 25, 2008
http://nymag.com/news/features/47225/ - A great read!

That's cool, I'll support that!

Those opponents can kiss my autistic ass.

Its good to see things being discussed in the open, maybe the tide is turning at last!

There's this and also the Autism Acceptance Project. If we could just get this on something like Oprah and get some attention on these projects. Just like the gay movement or black rights movements, we just need to get out there and show people we are here.

Have already posted on Oprah and suggested they do not remove, but they never allow links and remove all threads unless they like!

I feel its a matter of want to keep control of what there readers think!

and Shelby your so right we all have to speak out now and be heard

I answered on oprah, they will delete the link for sure. Post again, I gave a few examples on oprah of how to post your link. I think just copying and pasting the article will be enough, that way people will read it if they are too lazy to click a link or do a search.

LOVE the article btw, I agree with every word. This is SO great people are getting out there and putting an end to our discrimination.

"putting an end to our discrimination" unfortunatelly still far to many people have no idea what autism really is and half of the ones that do would rather keep us at arms length. Still if I have any think to do with it - change will happen ,.

There's a photo of me on the second page.

It's about time that we had a movement, like this one.

I couldn't get a paper copy today but I'll try Borders tomorrow.

I have mixed feelings on this.

On one hand, maybe people will catch on and treat us better, on the other hand, it tends to be the people that know more about it that seem to treat me more as if I had a serious handicap (personally no 100 percent sure, but I am aspie enough I can't stand overhearing random comments about it from people in the other room...)

I truly think the only things that need to be "fixed" about me are my severe meltdowns and depression. And guess what, those mostly go away when I feel good about myself, no matter whzt happens, I just wish society will someday change.

Thanks for sharing, Asplanet.
Here's a link to Ari's website: http://www.autisticadvocacy.org/

I'd love to see them spend a day in my shoes and my mind and then call my experiences 'trivial' or 'nice'...

What LeKiwi said.

Hi Alex

I feel its one of those articles which is the start of many, as slowly all your hard work and others start to make a difference....

I may not agree with every little point, but overall one of the best articles in a long time, it includes so many points, the contents in this article has needed not just to be said, but heard. The fact alone that it will get others discussing and thinking about autism, in another way apart from there own - maybe!.

As I know only too well I was only diagnosed not quite a year yet and really had no idea and we could all say no need to, this I strongly disagree with and understand now why it is so important people understand our invisible difference... we expect people who do not understand another person to say and people generally will say if they do not understand what someone else is saying, and when we travel its easy for us to say we do not understand because we can not speak the language. But for autistic people when others do not understand us, we should all feel we can say we are AUTISTIC without others looking at us like we have just said a dirty word!

What I have a problem with is the whole idea that autistic people are "in pain" as if they had a cancerous tumor or something. As we all know, autistic people may get frustrated from time to time, especially toddlers who can't speak and therefore scream to compensate, but they're not "in pain", physical (unless they have a physical ailment in addition to autism, like food allergies) or mental.

The "pain" is really the psychic pain of the parents who suddenly realize that their kid will never be "normal" and therefore never go to Harvard or do whatever dreams the parent has for their kid. (Even that is not universal; higher functioning people may be perfectly capable of achieving greatness in the right environment.) It seems that fathers especially want sons to be "fishin' buddies" and when the son is unable to the father feels like less of a man.

The parent's pain gets projected onto the kid, who is then perceived to be "suffering" and in need of chelation or other quack "cures". The parent may even feel that the kid is better off dead because his pain (actually the parent's) is too heavy a burden for the parents to bear. This is how some parents arrive at killing their autistic kids.

American parents especially seem to view kids as just another gadget; if it won't do what I want it to, trash it and get a model that will. Not every kid will head a hedge fund at 25 and make their parents and themselves obscenely wealthy, which seems to be the general desire of the upper middle class for their kids. Even NT kids won't. Because the kid's talent is working on cars or computers and not playing Wall Street for billions doesn't make them any less valuable as human beings, yet for growing numbers of American parents that's what they think. A child's value should not be limited to how much money it can make; that our society views its kids in such a way is symptomatic of deep social rot. With parents killing kids if the kid won't be a millionaire but will need specialized and expensive lifelong care, our society needs a value adjustment.