An Open Letter to Autism Speaks
It is 2016 and my best friend abandons me because I’m strange.
It is 2016 and my best friend says that ableism is gone.
It is 2016 and my best friend still supports Autism Speaks.
It is 2016 and my best friend sees me as a pet project.
As a disease.
As something to fix.
It is 2016 and my best friend believes Autism Speaks.
I don’t mean to attack you butIt’s 2016 and you people are still trying to find a cure
When we- autistics- beg you to stop.
We don’t need to be cured.
We don’t want to be cured.
Just because MY nonverbal moments
And meltdowns
And shutdowns
Inconvenience YOU
Doesn’t mean that people like ME
Need to be eliminated.
This is eugenics.
This is ableism.
It’s 2016 and you are still funneling most of your money towards advertisement and research
It’s 2016 and I flinch at blue puzzle pieces
Because all I can associate with it is with silencing and hate
You are afraid of us.
We are terrified of you.
YOU are why so many of us go through torture
ABA is pain and tears and struggling to accept ourselves
Not knowing that its okay to say no
Because you want us to look ‘neurotypical normal’.
We’re not.
We’re neurodivergent
And forcing us to look neurotypical is the opposite of helping us
It’s hiding us.
It’s forcing a caterpillar out of its cocoon
And making it never transform into a butterfly.
My stimming hands are not a challenge.
My lack of eye contact isn’t an insult.
They are integral parts of me
As much as echolalia is an integral part of my speech.
It’s 2016 and you haven’t changed.It’s 2016 and I’m still not human to you.
It’s 2016 and Autism Speaks still
Don’t Speak For Me.
