Do you support Autism Speaks?

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OH SWEET LOVE OF JESUS.

I.... I can't believe that.... no.... f*** me.

was this post found underneath that car park along with Richards the 3rd bones

Not particularly (certainly not financially), but I don't see any other organisation representing 'us' any better either. (By 'us' I am referring to my family). Autism Speaks is the closest thing, which is extremely pathetic and sad, but nonetheless true.

And there are some autistic 'kids' that are not...
I doubt either of my kids will be gainfully employed, and one probably won't be literate. I also personally know some who won't be/ are not toilet trained.

Pretending this doesn't exist just increases tensions between the LFA parents and HFA individuals and does not help anybody- so let's not... Like it or not- they exist. Even if you think it's 100% the parent's fault that they are like that- they are still like that.

What about Autism Society of America, Autism Science Foundation, Association for Science in Autism Treatment, or Golden Hat Foundation?

Well I meant an organisation that I can see in my community, not somewhere to send money to...but 2 and 3 are both interesting to me, thanks. None of those are present in our community. I loved the Golden Hat movie...but then I looked into rapid prompting, which is the method they advertised, and it appears to be pseudo-science BS, and that really makes angry. People shouldn't do that- make money off of people's desperation (and using the kids in that manner..*spits*). And it seems like that's the case with everything- it might look great but in reality it's not. I'm sorry that I'm so sceptical of everything now- at this point I'll probably miss the great organisation that is everything I'm looking for because I won't believe it exists. Such is life.

I haven't seen that movie yet. I'm trying to find a good time to do it where it's okay if it really ruins my mood. Sadly, there are very few autism organizations immune to some level of pseudo-science BS. ASF and ASAT are notable exceptions.

I am posting this and reposting this all week. Please help and do the same.
Just a FYI: If you live in Lincoln Nebraska, and you have ANY form of Autism, Detectives will NOT allow anyone with you while you are being questioned! We asked and he asked to have a counselor (attorney) be present to help him understand what was being said...detective said NO...no one is allowed with him during questioning. The Lincoln Police Detectives believe that Americans with autism have no civil rights. They know they can get an easy confession even though its not the truth. Please share everyday many times a day

Does not surprise me, I live in Iowa, the Midwest is a pretty screwed up place that's apparently "the best place to raise a family."

Are you sure this is a policy? It sounds like it may have been one thickheaded detective. That said, this is terrible.

Autism speaks is offensive. enough said.

They're white evangelical nationalist psuedoscience neo Nazi white parents who have LFA kids that Cather to naive white parents and ignore color folks and asd people

I wouldn't go that far.

*Fist pound*

Why not ?

Not only do I not support them, I actively lobby against them at every opportunity.

I have no problem with Autism Speaks. I would guess that it's very hard to have a child on the severe end of the spectrum and that a parent would do anything in their power to be able to communicate with their kid the same way as other parents. I imagine that you would feel that your child is missing out on so many things because he's autistic, and not just things that "society" prevents them from doing, but things that the autism prevents them from doing - like communication and coordination and enjoying or even trying different foods or experiences without sensory issues ruining it for the child.

People can argue and say that it's the best thing in the world to do to accommodate the preferences of autistic folks, and that can be true. However if your child only eats chicken nuggets in a certain shape made by a certain company and only in a certain number served on a specific plate and accompanied by a certain number of fries cut a certain way and cooked only in the oven and not in oil, etc, and that child takes supplements so he's not malnourished, he's certainly ok eating that but who is to say that he wouldn't actually enjoy a mushroom swiss burger or a squash casserole if he could tolerate trying it? Who is to say that the kid whose spare time is consumed with one video game over and over might not like others if he would try to play them or even something outside like baseball if the autism hadn't ruined his coordination to the point where hitting the ball is out of the question, like it was with me? Who knows whether or not the adult who can't stand the social scene and is bitter and feels that society is stacked against him might not really like going to clubs and parties if the autism didn't make him hate the noise and didn't make him go blank when it was time to talk to someone he just met? People may say that they find something silly or unappealing, etc and would never enjoy it but the fact is that it's the autism that prevents someone from enjoying some things and in many cases from even attempting them. This isn't to say that without autism we would all be club hopping athlete foodies, but there are probably lots of things that many of us would like that we normally don't because of the limitations that autism imposes.

It's not just the limitations which we face and cope with that make autism look like a not so great thing to have. When a parent with a child on the really low end of the spectrum has a child who at 12 years old is not at all toilet trained and shows no interest in learning to use it, who doesn't sleep more than two or three hours in a row, who doesn't communicate much at all to the parent and who melts down several times a day and seems content and quiet only when given one particular toy or game and then is completely absorbed in it, or is only inwardly focused, then can you honestly say that the parent is wrong to wish that there were something that could be done to help the child communicate and sleep and go to the bathroom and just relate to world beyond the few things which totally absorb him? Could anyone honestly say that a parent is wrong or "evil" if they think that something is wrong with their child and want to fix them when they are in that situation? That doesn't mean they don't love their child. That doesn't mean they want to "kill" their child or just "don't want to be bothered". That means they love their child and want them to have the best that life has to offer. Would any of the autism advocates here actually tell me that they wouldn't feel the desire to do something to help their child if he were that severe?

Yes, Autism Speaks uses the worst case scenario and they do go over the top with their ads. If they didn't, they wouldn't get as much money. It's the same with marketing anything! When was the last time you saw a commercial for a new fast food burger and instead of people talking about how it was the best thing ever, the guy took a bite and said "Yeah, it's ok"?

Could you imagine a commercial where AS didn't go to the worse case scenario of stealing your child's personality and locking them away in a cold dark mental place with no comfort and only lonliness, but instead gave the day to day reality for adults on the milder end of the spectrum? "Meet Ann and Tom. Ann hates flourescent lights and at the end of her workday she has a headache and a very short temper. Eyeliner bothers her as do certain aspects of clothing, so she's forced to endure a life without the cat eye look or low rise jeans. She's doomed to never look cutting edge runway stylish! Eating in public bothers her, and when she's overwhelmed she finds it hard to remember what she's going to say. Sometimes she talks on and on about an uninteresting subject and the only way to stop her is to be rude! She's said childish things to strangers before she was able to stop herself in the past, like the time she asked a stranger if she could talk the lady's hairdo. Tom is single and has trouble talking to women. He isn't good at making small talk and he feels that any self improvement program he could start would be "changing for society" so he's now not only single, out of shape and unwashed, but he's also bitter. Tom is obsessed with this and can't find a woman because of the obsession and won't lose the obsession until he finds a woman who is a model. Please help Ann and Tom by donating most of your spending money to Autism Shouts. After all, what do you need it for - buying more stupid NT stuff?"

I have seen the ASpeaks ads and such and all the doom and gloom from them, but nowhere did I see them say or imply that we are not human or less than NT's or should be rounded up and put into camps and systematically killed. I don't like the fact that they play all autism as worst case scenario, but I also don't let it hurt my feelings or take it personally, and I don't want them banned from existing because of paranoia. I had a conversation on here not long ago with someone who dislikes the autism mom's blogs because when they talk about how hard it actually is to take care of their autistic child, it might make someone, sometime in the future, if and when the autism gene and prenatal test is ever developed, decide to abort their baby with autism based on the blog. Thats the very kind of paranoia that I'm talking about. If you are posting here, or anywhere for that matter, then autism speaks is probably not talking about you in their ads. Would it make those who hate it feel better if it were called "Very low function and unable to communicate with many other comorbids Autism Speaks"?

I don't see activists for other disabilities trying to hurt research and treatment the same way many autistics do. You don't see a lot of "deaf culture" people screaming about ear implants or grandma's hearing aids. You don't see paralympic athletes complaining that doctors are operating on spina bifita babies and making them able to walk when they are older. Because it's a spectrum disorder, there are lots of people worse off than you, and better off than you. You want to block those worse off from help because it hurts your self esteem that something unpleasant was said about autism? Or do you just really enjoy the limitations that autism has placed on you and think it's not only a gift but a sign of some kind of superiority?

So while I don't support ASpeaks with money as I don't donate to any charity, they certainly have my moral support and I do hope their research comes up with something to help us, or autistics generations from now. As for aborting a baby based on autism, well it wasn't autism speaks that gave autism a bad reputation, it was autism itself that did that.