Why Do People Hate Suzanne Wright?

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I'm trying to figure out why half of the autistic community is mourning Suzanne Wright (founder of #AutismSpeaks) and the other half feels as if she's done irreparable damage to the community.

Can I get some perspective, reading material, anything...?

Autism Speaks a call to action written by Suzanne Wright

Suzanne Wright speaking at the Vatican



Got to the Wikipedia Autism Speaks article and look for the controversies section

As co-founder of Autism Speaks, she did a lot to demonize autistic people.

A search of this site or Google should help clarify the disagreements people had with Suzanne Wright.

I think it's not right to invite a discussion of a person's faults just after they die. There is some kind of social convention or taboo against it. I believe there is an aphorism, "don't speak ill of the dead," that addresses this. "De mortuis nil nisi bonum"

That may partly stem from magical thinking (the spirit of the recently dead may linger and take offense, etc.) but it may also encapsulate some sense that it may be hard for the survivors who loved the deceased person to hear negative comments about them when they are in an emotionally sensitive state.

I can imagine such incidents leading to lasting conflict in small communities and that a social prohibition against it arose to prevent that.

In any case, it seems to me like a good idea to follow the old convention and not take the period immediately following a person's death as a time to make negative comments about them.

I understand that this is something that has changed dramatically in recent years, particularly on the web and in social media, but it still seems like a thing to avoid, to me.

This is not a discussion of her personally. She was a public figure and there's no reason not to discuss her in that context.

I don't think that makes any difference. Being a public figure doesn't mean that you are not also a person with friends and relatives.

Maybe that's just me. I feel like this is a convention that I should try to follow.

A small bit of irony considering we, as autistics, do not typically follow "convention"...!

But I understand the sentiment.

My motive isn't to slander anyone... I am generally confused because it seems so (passionately) divided within the larger autism community and I wanted clarity and understanding so I could interface, conversate, and dialogue with my friends about this stuff with a modicum of intelligence.

Let me Google that for you.

I didn't know who she was until reading this thread, but I know what Autism Speaks is and have read on them some. So my answer is I dislike Autism Speaks greatly because of what I believe is its view of all autistics as defects, that it has no autistic representation in its leadership or boards and its stealth eugenics program...and therefore would not have a favorable view of one of it's founders.

They say "Don't speak ill of the dead", but the dead can't hear. I hear plenty of illness being spoken about Hitler and Attila the Hun decades after their deaths, so why should I not be allowed to say anything negative about a woman who wanted everyone to think autistic people are horrible and will ruin everyone's lives, and founded an organization that can be compared to the KKK or Nazis?

My only thought is that hopefully A$ will fall apart without her and I will not have to put up with this idiocy for much longer. But I doubt it because too many people have already been brainwashed. They're advocating parents who murder their autistic children, letting their kids suffer and die instead of getting vaccinated, and believe anyone who acts the slightest bit "odd" will be the next mass murderer. The world is full of morons.

I dislike the organization very much but I have never seen them advocating that parents murder thier children, or saying everybody that is a bit odd are mass murderers.

Thier rhetoric has been awful, emphasing the worst aspects of autism and for many years ignoring adults. In 2006 they ran a fundraising documentry in which an Autism parent who worked for them said autism was so bad she thought about driving off of the George Washington Bridge but could not do it because of his NT sister. What made it worse was the Autistic kid was right in the room when she said this. Just Awful. According to the book "In A Different Key" Autism Speaks used the Anti vax movement to become popular but last year they disassociated themselves from it after the Disneyland measles outbreak. If anything by their emphasis on severe autism they have propagated the belief that non severe autism is not real autism or not autism at all and belief by some parents of severe autistics that any autistics that can write have no right to advocate for "real autistics". In the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre the media linked Aspergers to violence. Suzanne and Bob Wright put out a statement saying "Autism did not cause this horror. The profound tragedy of these senseless murders will only be compounded if it results in unwarranted discrimination against people with autism.". In addition Autism Speaks representatives went on TV to debunk the Autism violence link. In recent years Autistic adults have blogged on their websites a less then all negative view of Autism. Two of the bloggers are Amy Gravino and Kerry Mango are two Autism Speaks employees. In December 2015 they appointed two Autistics to their board. It is widely suspected that Autism Speaks is using genetic research to eliminate Autistics by having us aborted before we are born. No proof of this has emerged.

I believe Autism Speaks has caused great harm to Autistic people in the past and while less "evil" then in the past is still causing harm. Repeating unsubstantiated horrific allegations compounds the harm.

Suzanne Write had good intentions and wanted no more than to help those affected by autism, but I feel that Autism Speaks has negatively affected how the general public (neurotypicals) perceives People with an ASD.

If you want to know more about the negative effects of Autism Speaks, I would begin with watching the I am Autism video (I believe someone has already posted it in this topic).