We don’t need to cure autism.
Autism and those of us who are autistic don’t need to be pathologized.
I don’t need or want my autism cured. I don’t need or want my daughter’s autism cured.
What the autistic community wants and needs is acceptance.
Supporting a “cure” is supporting the removal of autism and thus our gifts and what actually makes us who we are.
There are many medical professionals, scientists, educators and even organizations “advocating” for autistics who want to prevent autism—which, essentially, means preventing autistic people from being born.
(I rather like a world that is neurodiverse, thank you very much.)
This message of autism prevention and cure is beyond harmful; its undercurrent says that if you’re autistic, you’re:
—unworthy
—don’t belong
—there’s something so inherently wrong with you, that you don’t deserve to be born
That’s not only offensive, it’s a perfect recipe for a beautiful human being to feel that they are not as good as others; this could lead to significant emotional trauma and pain for a person.
It hurts my stomach just thinking about this.
Here’s the thing:
There’s nothing WRONG with autism or autistic people.
We’re just different.
Different is not wrong.
We can take a moment to see how this applies far beyond autism.
There’s an overarching message in our world that different is wrong (or even dangerous).
We exclude, shun, bully, and hurt (and sometimes even kill) people who are just simply different.
The only thing dangerous about being different (which all of us are!) is the profoundly rooted and globally stretching belief that different equals bad/wrong.
My ask is that you consider that these types of curing/preventive efforts are damaging to my community in a profound way.
…That it supports and perpetuates a belief in our world that is harmful to all kinds of communities, ethnicities, sexual orientations, religions, political affiliations, and social groups.
I’m grateful I was born.
I’m grateful my daughter was born. Exactly as she is.
Let’s embrace the fact that all of us are different and that’s what makes the world lovely … not scary and bad.