On speaking the truth

[pyraxis]

Today was Communication Shutdown Day for autism awareness. Supporters of the AEIOU Foundation, which does early intervention treatment for autistic kids, bought a $5 app and signed out from Facebook and Twitter.

Today, in rebellion against people who think turning off Facebook could mimic the autistic experience, members of the online autistic community declared this to be Autistics Speaking Day [ABC News].

Today, The New Republic, a satire blog which dared to call out the autistic owner of the WrongPlanet forum for selling out to Autism Speaks and allowing their executives to censor members' words, was taken offline after being threatened with a lawsuit from Autism Speaks an internet therapist in California with an agenda.

Comments

[jimnightmare.livejournal.com]

Ugh ugh ugh, he took down the site?! Okay, this whole thing is really pissing me off. We weren't going to do a post for today, but maybe we'll do that now.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

The fact that those guys do "intervention" for autistic children tells you all about who and what they are.

[zyfron.livejournal.com]

We had the same thought.

Especially since it's "early intervention." it's one thing if an adult says "I don't like this, cure me." but it's another to just go to a young child and declare that they are needing to be fixed before they've really had a chance to think for themselves and come to their own decisions about things.

[pyraxis]

Yeah. I hope this didn't come across as me being in favor of them. I think I worded it badly. I'm new to this style of writing.

[liminaltime]

Yet on the hiatus page, it says right there they have "nothing to do with Autism Speaks."

So the basic idea is that Autism Speaks wants to spread the idea that autism is horrible and must be cured, and wants to silence autistics who might give people a different idea?

[pyraxis]

Socrates keeps saying that there's a UK law that prevents him from disclosing who's suing him. So he keeps being sarcastic and indirect in an attempt not to incriminate himself.

[liminaltime]

Yeah, I figured it was either sarcasm or an attempt to cover his butt. It's scary and sad that what's supposed to be an advocacy/support group has turned into an oppressive regime. (Hope I don't get sued for this comment!)

There's an Asperger/autism group here in town that I found on meetup.com, but I didn't have a good feeling about joining after getting the impression that the club leader is an Autism Speaks supporter.

[thirteen-ravens.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

May I copy your post content and repost to my journal? I have several Aspies on my Flist who aren't in the loop and I feel this news needs to spread as far and wide as it can...

[pyraxis]

Check here first - apparently it's not Autism Speaks, it's some counsellor in California with an agenda. The timing was very... odd.

But yeah, feel free to share what you like.

[liedownlovely.livejournal.com]

hey, we've talked a bit back and forth - want to be friends? :)

[pyraxis]

Sure :)