Last updated on November 26, 2023
Podcast Episode 0062; Season 04, Episode 26; April 2, 2021
It’s that time of year again. Yes, it’s time for my annual rant against Autism Awareness Month and all that goes with it. Though, personally, blue is one of my favorite colors so I’d like to keep the blue. Darn, I wish it wasn’t associated with autism.
This is my call for Autistic Pride Month.
Transcript (lightly edited)
Hello, and welcome to The Autistic Me Podcast. I am Christopher Scott Wyatt, speaking as The Autistic Me.
I’m releasing this episode of The Autistic Me on April 2, 2021, because this is Autism Awareness Day.
Who isn’t aware? I cannot walk through a parking lot and not see a puzzle piece or ribbon decal on at least one car. The car magnets in the shape of a ribbon composed of puzzle pieces remain popular, too.
Every time I go to speak at a school or university, the “Autism Warrior Mom” bumper stickers catch my eye. The variations on this theme all bother me.
These are the people with autism, apparently. They “live with autism” and hate it. They’re angry about it. They demand a cure for their damaged children.
That’s what autism awareness has given us. A month of grieving for the children “locked inside” their bodies by this horrible disease caused by….
Well, caused by anything that doesn’t implicate the parents in any way, shape, or form. It’s not genetic, not even random genetic replication errors. No way. Something big, bad, and evil caused the autism.
You know, like vaccines.
I hate autism awareness. We’re aware, and I definitely don’t care for the ribbons and puzzle pieces promoting more awareness of bad theories and self-pity.
Forget tolerance, too. I don’t want to be tolerated, I’ve stated repeatedly. No, you tolerate someone with whom you have a disagreement. You tolerate something you don’t particularly like or want. No thank you. We don’t want to be tolerated.
Acceptance isn’t much of a step forward.
You accept me? That sounds like you like us despite some flaw.
Yes, I understand that organizations mean “acceptance” as in welcoming. Like we’re accepted into colleges or accepted into special programs.
It’s not like there’s real acceptance.
I don’t like the word. I accept your apologies, though.
People who know I am autistic have said they’re sorry our daughters are neurodiverse. Why are they sorry? Because they know, deep down, the girls won’t be readily accepted, embraced, and celebrated. If the label “autistic” is eventually applied to one of them, in addition to the other labels already affixed to their records, they don’t need pity, tolerance, or some half-hearted acceptance.
My children should be proud of who they are.
I’m still struggling to accept myself, thanks to all the nonsense about autism, ADHD, and disabilities in general that I internalized.
Forgive me if I don’t sound enthusiastic about Autism Awareness Day or Autism Awareness Month. Neither one of these focuses on autistics in the way Black History Month and National Hispanic Heritage Month attempt to draw positive attention to those communities.
It took a lot of years for our media to recognize the opportunities associated with celebrating diverse communities.
I long for the day when Autism Awareness Month becomes Autistic Pride Month or something similar. We could have History Channel specials on autistics who contributed to the arts and sciences. We could have documentaries on the abuses suffered by autistics, too.
April should be a celebration of autistics. Autistic Pride Month.
Honor our autistic painters. Our musicians and singers. Honor our poets. Our essayists and our reporters. Honor the autistic software developers, engineers, and scientists. Honor the autistics who aren’t famous but should be.
Nothing against the pioneers, but there are more than a half-dozen amazing autistics in the United States.
And if we’re going to tell the history, we need to tell the full history of the autistic experience. Just as we must teach everyone about the Red Summer of 1919 and the Tulsa Massacre as part of Black History, we need to teach a more complete autistic history.
Here are some things we should be teaching.
I hate the word “Aspie” and always have. I’ve even argued with other autistics that I don’t want to be referred to by the name of a Nazi doctor. Hans Asperger might not have operated a gas chamber, but he also wasn’t opposed to eugenics or the Nazi’s grand plan. At best, he tolerated the Nazis and at worst he was a Nazi. He wasn’t rescuing special children — he was studying the children.
Asperger’s theories about autism fit neatly with those of two other names I want people to know… and reject.
In the 1950s and 1960s it was “Dr. B” defining autism for the masses. Bruno Bettelheim was a liar, cheat, fraud, and the monster who blamed mothers for causing autism. There’s no redemption for Bettelheim. None. He coined the phrase “refrigerator mother” to explain autism.
Bettelheim had a doctorate in art theory, not psychology. Yes, he was a persecuted Jew who fled Germany for the United States, but that doesn’t excuse a life of lies and deceptions. He lied his way all to the top of the pop psychology book charts.
What about the treatments for autism?
One name stands out: Ivar Lovaas. For Autistic Pride month, let’s expose Lovaas for the homophobic abuser of children he was.
Applied Behavior Analysis. Lovaas developed ABA to “cure” effeminate boys. Lovaas was a star researcher, working at the University of California, Los Angeles. Think about that. I’ve written about Lovaas and his influence on therapists promoting “gay conversion.”
When he started working with autistics, Lovaas declared the children almost inhuman. He applied animal behavior training techniques to force autistics to behave more acceptably. Punishments were the norm.
ABA was torture, not therapy.
Here we are, with Autism Awareness Month, a month promoted by organizations that haven’t disavowed Asperger, Bettelheim, or Lovaas: a Nazi, an academic fraud, and a homophobe.
These organizations claiming to speak for us wonder why we don’t trust them.
Autistics have to endure a month of people promoting ABA and demanding the therapies be covered by healthcare plans. We have to endure a month of news segments and publication articles on the suspected causes and the potential cures for autism.
Autism awareness starts to sound a lot like eugenics when you listen closely to some of the news coverage.
Autism Speaks? No. Autistics speak. And write. And express ourselves in every other way humans communicate.
Let’s use Autistic Pride Month to tell the stories of autistics, the good stories of what we have accomplished and the negative stories of what has been done to us. We must stake our claim on the month, instead of permitting Autism Speaks and other groups to use the attention for fundraising efforts.
How did we get Autism Awareness Month?
April 2, 2008, was the first World Autism Awareness Day, following official adoption by the United Nations in December 2007.
In the United States, the Autism Society first promoted an autism awareness week in 1972. The week became Autism Awareness Month. In 1984, Congress passed a resolution endorsing National Autism Awareness Month.
Autism Speaks wasn’t founded until 2005, but now Autism Awareness Month is associated with an organization many autistics and autism organizations distrust. Autism Speaks raises a lot of money, but only a fraction of those funds support local programs directly helping autistics.
In recent years, Autism Speaks has improved its charitable efficiency, according to Charity Navigator. However, what Autism Speaks does fund often reflects prioritizing the “quest for a cure” over supporting autistics. Autism Speaks raises much of its $60 million in donations during April. By comparison, the Autism Society raises $3 million annually.
This year, groups are trying to rebrand Autism Awareness Month. Some are trying to call it Autism Acceptance Month. I mentioned early that I don’t want their form of acceptance. There are hashtags claiming to celebrate neurodiversity, but those social media posts aren’t coming from within the neurodiverse community.
Instead of autism groups founded by grieving family members and led by boards focused on causes and cures, let’s make Autistic Pride Month about groups founded by or with leadership actively including autistics.
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network should be featured prominently during Autistic Pride Month. Regional groups led by and for autistics should also be given the media coverage they deserve.
If you’re an autistic, let us promote Autistic Pride Month together. Join with me. You want to be an ally? Tell people that April is Autistic Pride Month and a month for learning about autistics and their history.
It’s April 2 as I record this episode and I’m already tired of the ads I’m seeing on television, hearing on radio, and reading online. I can’t wait for April to end so I don’t feel so frustrated and angry.
Thank you for your continued support of The Autistic Me Podcast, the blog, and my social media feeds. If you enjoy the podcast, please give it a positive review and help spread the word. Yes, let’s increase the awareness of autistic bloggers, podcasters, and social media influencers.
Regardless of the day or month, I am Christopher Scott Wyatt, speaking as The Autistic Me.
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