For some this is coming April is Autism Acceptance Month where people wear gold (whose chemical symbol is Au the first two letters of Autism), red, taupe, orange, and green, donate to autistic-led non-profit organizations such as the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, the Autism Women's Network, the Autistic Union, and so on; hold stim sessions to educate people on the meaning of repetitive behaviors in autistics; and read, write, and share poetry, blog posts, art, articles, and personal stories from Autistics, their allies, educators, parents, family, and specialists in celebration of autistics and the unique strengths they have and gifts they bring to the world without denying their challenges they and their loved ones experience as a result of social pressures and internalized biases.
To others this Autism Awareness Month, spear-headed by neurotypical, high executive-paying groups such as Autism Speaks whose focus is on genetic research, compare autistics to car wrecks, cancer, and being struck by lightning; and of their executives, only two are autistic in the thirteen years of AS's existence. This is celebrated by wearing blue and lighting blue lights in reference to Autism Speaks' blue puzzle piece logo that is blue in reference to males who AS and similarly medical-modeled autism organizations cite at face value make up eighty percent of autism diagnoses, with females only twenty, despite increasing evidence that autistic traits manifest differently in males and females with diagnostic criteria on autism possessing far more understanding of male's traits than females.
Furthermore, many autistic people reject the puzzle piece for a number of reasons. Not only are puzzles usually made in primary colors-suggesting autism is only a childhood thing or that all autistics need to be judged on their supposed mental age-but refers to finding a "missing piece" both a cure, and the "normal" child inside an autistic person that the cure will free from the cage of our autistic behavior and shell.
But despite what Autism Speaks says I am not a person plus Autism. Autism is not an addition to my personhood or me. It is a valid way of being a person that no one has a right to make me hide or get rid before I can be truly accepted. If I were truly accepted I would not have to change my neurological wiring just as I would not have to change my race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or nationality first.
Society deemed that autistic people had some "normal" (neurotypical) child hidden beneath the surface, autistics ended up spending hours in therapy each week to try and teach us to be neurotypical, which only ended up hindering autistic's development of self-esteem and self-awareness, and merely increased the feelings of isolation therapy was meant to alleviate. We spent our lives, childhood to adulthood, trying to get tone of voice, eye contact, body language, and facial expressions right when interacting with NTs, who judged us as different before we even spoke to or communicated with them. We get old to be ourselves, but rebuffed the instant a crack shows up in our mask. No matter how much therapy we got or how early we received it, autistic people always faced higher suicide rates, higher rates of depression, and greater instances of addiction than the general population. Our peers and our families failed to recognize that the responsibility of stress of ourselves and our loved ones lay in in us being they way we are, but the larger world's bias against it and being engrained in thinking that actively prevented them from accommodating it.
When my autistic kin, allies, and I celebrate Autism Acceptance Month this year it is more than a celebration whitewashing autism. It is a rebellion. I, together with millions of autists across the globe, posit that social progress does not move in the same direction as societies ills. As I have done for the previous two Aprils and the last twenty-four days of the April before them, plan to wear no blue for the entire month from 12:00 AM on April 1 to 11:59 PM on April 30, with the exception of my rainbow-colored Autism Acceptance Month shirt, which I will hit places all over Kansas City on both sides of the Kansas City border, Lee's Summit, and UMKC in my hours off the clock. But besides that anything that has blue I will not don. I have planned out my clothes for work to do so already and made plans to get new clothes to help me do so.
If you choose not to go this far, that is fine. I am just saying this so you all will know what I am doing and why I am doing it. I am not litmus-testing. If you do choose to do this, great! Do whatever you can do to avoid wearing blue. Let's make Autism Acceptance Month 8 a month worth remembering.
To others this Autism Awareness Month, spear-headed by neurotypical, high executive-paying groups such as Autism Speaks whose focus is on genetic research, compare autistics to car wrecks, cancer, and being struck by lightning; and of their executives, only two are autistic in the thirteen years of AS's existence. This is celebrated by wearing blue and lighting blue lights in reference to Autism Speaks' blue puzzle piece logo that is blue in reference to males who AS and similarly medical-modeled autism organizations cite at face value make up eighty percent of autism diagnoses, with females only twenty, despite increasing evidence that autistic traits manifest differently in males and females with diagnostic criteria on autism possessing far more understanding of male's traits than females.
Furthermore, many autistic people reject the puzzle piece for a number of reasons. Not only are puzzles usually made in primary colors-suggesting autism is only a childhood thing or that all autistics need to be judged on their supposed mental age-but refers to finding a "missing piece" both a cure, and the "normal" child inside an autistic person that the cure will free from the cage of our autistic behavior and shell.
But despite what Autism Speaks says I am not a person plus Autism. Autism is not an addition to my personhood or me. It is a valid way of being a person that no one has a right to make me hide or get rid before I can be truly accepted. If I were truly accepted I would not have to change my neurological wiring just as I would not have to change my race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or nationality first.
Society deemed that autistic people had some "normal" (neurotypical) child hidden beneath the surface, autistics ended up spending hours in therapy each week to try and teach us to be neurotypical, which only ended up hindering autistic's development of self-esteem and self-awareness, and merely increased the feelings of isolation therapy was meant to alleviate. We spent our lives, childhood to adulthood, trying to get tone of voice, eye contact, body language, and facial expressions right when interacting with NTs, who judged us as different before we even spoke to or communicated with them. We get old to be ourselves, but rebuffed the instant a crack shows up in our mask. No matter how much therapy we got or how early we received it, autistic people always faced higher suicide rates, higher rates of depression, and greater instances of addiction than the general population. Our peers and our families failed to recognize that the responsibility of stress of ourselves and our loved ones lay in in us being they way we are, but the larger world's bias against it and being engrained in thinking that actively prevented them from accommodating it.
When my autistic kin, allies, and I celebrate Autism Acceptance Month this year it is more than a celebration whitewashing autism. It is a rebellion. I, together with millions of autists across the globe, posit that social progress does not move in the same direction as societies ills. As I have done for the previous two Aprils and the last twenty-four days of the April before them, plan to wear no blue for the entire month from 12:00 AM on April 1 to 11:59 PM on April 30, with the exception of my rainbow-colored Autism Acceptance Month shirt, which I will hit places all over Kansas City on both sides of the Kansas City border, Lee's Summit, and UMKC in my hours off the clock. But besides that anything that has blue I will not don. I have planned out my clothes for work to do so already and made plans to get new clothes to help me do so.
If you choose not to go this far, that is fine. I am just saying this so you all will know what I am doing and why I am doing it. I am not litmus-testing. If you do choose to do this, great! Do whatever you can do to avoid wearing blue. Let's make Autism Acceptance Month 8 a month worth remembering.
