Monthly Archives: September 2014

What Acceptance is Not

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Acceptance is not giving up and turning your back on me because i am a complex soul…it is not what happens after you have fixed me to your liking…..acceptance is loving me as i am today….and letti g me go at my pace….letting me have my routines, my quirks, my hang-ups, not getting mad and treating me like i am having a tantrum when i am melting down because i have just reached my limit. Acceptance is loving me unconditionally. Thank you for writing this!! 🙂 ❤ ❤

Musings of an Aspie

Parent A: I love and accept my autistic child just as she is.

Parent B: So you’re just giving up on her?

Acceptance is not giving up.

 Parent A: I love and accept my autistic child just as he is.

Parent B: How can you just do nothing? My son gets at least 30 hours of behavioral therapy a week plus all-day preschool and adaptive sports and OT and PT and . . .

 Acceptance is not doing nothing.

 Parent A: I love and accept my autistic child just as she is.

Parent B: I love and accept my child too! After 5 years of ABA, daily social skills training, and a star-chart-sticker-reward-gummy-bear-timeout-management system validated by an elite team of MIT scientists you can’t tell she’s any different from the other kids in her mainstream class.

 Acceptance is not what happens after you’ve fixed someone to your liking.

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Why I Do Not Support Autism Speaks, The Blue Puzzle Piece, and being Called a Disease Or Epidemic.

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I do not happen to support Autism Speaks, or any organization that wants to cure, fix, and eradicate Autistic children and adults…..i 100% support the Boycott Autism Speaks movement.

Why? My reasons are many.

I was born this way, and so were my Autistic friends, and the last time i read my Bible, it said that God. Makes. NO. Mistakes. And i abhor any organization, group, or person who wants to come alongside me, and tell me i am wrong, and try to make me feel ashamed of who i am, and try to silence my voice!!

Yes, i AM trying to get people to unlike Autism Speaks, and to instead like and support organizations that actually promote TRUE acceptance of Autistics, organizations such as:

The Autism Self Advocacy Network

Autism Women’s Network

The Thinking Person’s Guide To Autism, etc.

But it is for some very valid reasons that i have my views, and why i am so aggressive about it. It is not because i am trying to police anyone. But because, i know that to keep silent any longer about this, is wrong.

In all of the literature and videos i have seen, Autism Speaks calls Autism a tragedy, a burden and curse. They call Autistic people broken, damaged, and wrong. They say that we are an epidemic, a tsunami, etc., and they use fear and hate, instead of love and acceptance, to win people to their cause. Hence, why i am also against the blue, or **any** puzzle piece and the Light It Up Blue campaign now as well…because we are not puzzle pieces either. We are real live breathing human beings who have rights, whose voices are systematically being muzzled and silenced by organizations like Autism Speaks, and others who promote the curing of our Autism. When i see a puzzle piece ribbon, it is a trigger for me now. A huge trigger. Because it represents oppression for me now.

Other reasons? I read that Autism Speaks only spends about 3% of all revenue they take in, (and oh, they take in millions of dollars,), on actual Autistic people. Yes, only 3%!! That is not good!! In addition? Autism Speaks does not have actual Autistic people on its board or staff, and they routinely ignore Our voices, and refuse to listen to Us. Please know that i am not being mean. I have come to believe this way because i have researched and read about Autism Speaks and what they are really about. I DO NOT feel that they are on Our side; i feel that they want Us GONE!! To those still not convinced….. Please read the following articles….and again, i would not be this staunchly opposed to them without darn good reason. 

In addition, they are 100% supportive of places like The Judge Rotenberg Center, the place where they use abusive tactics such as torture, fear, bully tactics, and electric shocks to make the Autistic/disabled students who go there “behave” the way the JRC staff wants them to behave. Those kind of things are human rights violations, and now, even the FDA and the United Nations have come out against the Judge Rotenberg Center, because of these very things. Yet Autism Speaks still supports the JRC. 

These are the reasons why i don’t support orgs. like Autism Speaks. Because i am not a hater.

The following articles are proof of why Autism Speaks does not speak for me or ANY Autistic child or adult!!

 

http://thecaffeinatedautistic.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/why-i-am-against-autism-speaks-and-you-should-be-too-2/

 

http://www.autistichoya.com/2013/11/an-unholy-alliance-autism-speaks-and.html

 

http://www.autistichoya.com/2012/03/responding-to-autism-speaks.html

 

http://www.boycottautismspeaks.com/home.html

 

 

Why I am Against Autism Speaks (and you should be, too)

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I am against Autism Speaks for so many reasons. As an Autistic adult, i am tired of being stigmatized by groups like them, and told i am wrong, damaged, etc.

The Caffeinated Autistic

Edit 6/20/14 I have updated this and created a new and hopefully better sourced and easier to read document.  Please go here:

http://thecaffeinatedautistic.wordpress.com/new-autism-speaks-masterpost-updated-62014/

(TW: Ableism) Autism Speaks is the most well-known autism charity.  They have the most media coverage and are endorsed by many celebrities, but this certainly does not make them a good organization.

  • Autism Speaks does not have a single autistic member on their board.
  • Autism Speaks only spends 4% of their budget on “family services”.
  • Much of Autism Speaks’ money goes toward research, and much of that research centers on finding a way to eliminate autism, and thus, autistics (which will likely be done through a prenatal test, in the same way that the Down’s Syndrome test is conducted).
  • Autism Speaks produces advertisments, small films, etc. about what a burden autistic people are to society.
  • Autism Speaks was responsible for “Autism Every Day”, which featured a…

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