Autism Speaks: Don't Speak For Me

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As some of you may know, on May 9th, Autism Speaks launched a film titled "Autism Every Day".

This film supposedly reflects a typical, "day in the life" daily experience of anyone with autism and their family members. While some of the experiences happen some of the time to some people, she has painted with a broad, negative, brush, using 100% spin.

Don't miss this chance to speak out. You can sign the petition electronically; you can only sign once from your IP address however.

http://www.autism-hub.co.uk/autism-spea ... /index.php

What *really* bugs me is that the people who know the most about discrimination are now supporting it. I'm referring to "here!", a gay-themed TV station from the USA that is supporting Autism Speaks in spite of the fact that ABA was created by the same guy who used to try to "cure" gay people using adversives.

Check this out (no offensive images, I promise!):
http://autisticbfh.blogspot.com/2006/07 ... r-you.html

Gay people can be just as discriminatory as any other group of people. I learned along time ago that some gay people are homophobic. I also learned that some people of color discriminate against other people of color. I learned that just because someone has a particular sexual orientation or skin color or any other difference does not automatically make that person a paragon of political correctness. So it is no surprise to me that a gay tv channel would support something that discriminates against autistic people.

Unfortunately being the member of an oppressed group doesn't automatically prevent someone from becoming an oppressor.

The important thing to see with this video is the spin. If it were hailed as what it really is, that would be different. But this is being portrayed as a day in the life of any typical autistic, which it is not. It is not even a day in the life of the persons with autism it displays, since so much time and effort went in to set up and editing it to be as bad and bleak as possible.

Yeah, like I said elswhere it's totally about the parents. And not even parents of a solid representative population.

I would like to think that their motives are good. I would not like to think of them as oppressors. Just well meaning and a little ignorant. The truth is that, unless you live it, you have no idea.

When I was a teenager I had loads of gay male friends and they took me under their wing, did my make up, made me clothes, took me to glamorous clubs in London, doing my lipstick next to Boy George in the loo. Made me laugh. I had a ball. They were not afraid to stand out and be themselves although they wanted to just be accepted. I really do think that they, least of all, would want to oppress us. It's just a question of information.

You are absolutely right here. It's a question of getting ALL the information. Just like I edited my quote from your post to include only the sentence I wanted to use, this film edits out any possible positives in order to show just the side they want to show. WHICH IS FINE. As long as you state UP FRONT that is your agenda. However, to do so and then tout your product as a realistic day-in-the-life video is disingenuous. It's like showing a man on the street question segment but pre-choosing all your interviewees to match your agenda.

One of the problems is that many of the parents who are in and support organizations like Autism Speaks, CAN, DAN, The Voice of Autism, etc., are all just as militant pro-cure as those autties over on "a forum which shall not be named" who are so anti-cure that they actually end up being quite bigotted.

Yes, these parents have the best of intentions. But their actions do not always carry that out. Loving is not a fail-safe to screwing up, as I'm sure every parent-- or every person in any kind of relationship-- will be able to admit.

And they use the argument "But it's done so much good!" Well yes in some ways it has. But it has also harmed people-- especially those who are in the autistic community and who live "autism" from the inside. Their propogandas teach us to be ashamed; teach us even more that we are different and a disease. Doing "good" doesn't mean that the harm it does should be ignored. No.

But so many of these parents are so emotionally involved (understandably) that on this subject their emotions are raging so much that they cannot listen to reason and whoever tries to reason with them against those beliefs they already hold, they attack with the argument "HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND WHAT MY FAMILY GOES THROUGH EVERY DAY?!?!" or "YOU'RE HIGH-FUNCTIONING SO HOW COULD YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT MY SON OR DAUGHTER IS THINKING AND FEELING?!?!"

They are so centered on curing and speaking for their child that they listen to no one who doesn't sound just like them and isn't spouting mirror words right back. They won't even listen to autistics. They seem to be on the defensive against anyone who doesn't think like they do.

And a side note: I have yet to meet any militant pro-cure parent who is also on the Spectrum themselves. Most of these organizations from what I can tell are all nonautistics... I wonder why that is...