While I’ve been trying to be more involved in Neurodivergent communities across various social media platforms, I had the misfortune to discover Autism Speaks, the American “advocacy” charity.

Most people would recognise their puzzle piece logo, even if they weren’t sure where it came from. Safe to say some of the things I’ve come across have been pretty abhorrent, from pretty harmful therapy techniques, including electroshock therapy, all the way to believing in eugenics and believing autism is something that needs to be cured and eradicated. Not to mention less than 10% of there funding goes to “supporting” autistic people.

I would not be who I am if I wasn’t autistic and the fact there is an advocacy charity out there that believes I need to be cured as if I’m some sort of disease is pretty upsetting to say the least. I’m only just starting to love who I am, having struggled with it for most of my life. I’ve been in some bad mental states, thinking I would be better off not being here, because of my autism. But now I know that that mentality was wrong and I’m in a better place, the best place I’ve been in ever mentally.

Autism is a big part of who I am, it drives pretty much who I am and it is the lense through which I view the world. Without it I am an entirely different person. To think there are people out there who want to cure me, or genetically test foetuses so parents can decide if they want their child to be born, or to plan how to counteract their behaviours and suppress who they are, so the parents don’t have to put up with it, is very distressing.

Back to autism speaks, what I want people to do is read up on them and why so many autistic people despise them and listen to those voices. Because that’s largely where autism speaks fails, big time. They would rather silence autistic people, than have them expose them for the danger they pose to us.

After reading up on Autism Speaks I just wanted to get this off my chest. They are a danger to autistic people and people need to see why.