Top reasons why you don't support autism speaks?

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I am working on a project for school, and I'd like the opinions of other autistics besides myself

My own personal opinion is this: I dislike pretty much all Autism Rights organizations I ever heard of because they are not confrontational enough, weak-willed, unorganized or run by NT people seeking a 'cure'. They make autistic people out to be victims rather then survivors, and they lack creativity, courage and willpower.

As for Autism Speaks? f**k Autism Speaks. I speak, I have autism, listen to me instead. I've looked for autism rights organizations and have yet to find a single one, big or small, that has any real balls and a vision that inspires to follow.

Would you support an organization for black people that had only white people for it's board of directors? Of course not. But yet that exactly how Autism Speaks operates. Plus. Autism Speaks represents the parents of autistic children and like to play on the fears of parents with autistic kids. And it this playing on someones fear the make them tyrants.

I do not have any personal experience with Autism Speaks. I had never heard of the organization until coming to this board. Since the first book about Autism/Asperger's I read was by Jon Elder Robison, and he disassociated (if that is the right word) with them, I would tend not to support them.

Autism Speaks uses hate speech against those with autism. They claim that we are broken or defective and need to be cured. They fail to realize that people with any form of autism, even children as well, are no different from an NT child. How? Well, autistic children and NT children are both human. I don't like them because of those reasons alone. They claim they are helping autistic kids, yet they really aren't. If you want to know more about their hate speech, go to youtube and search 'Autism sound the alarm".

I may sound stubborn here, but I have chosen to speak for myself. At this time, I do not want someone else (organization, etc.) speaking for me. I have my own voice.

Those who say ASAN and other anti-cure pro-neurodiversity orgs only represent aspies/mild/hf autistics, while A$ represents severe autistics would do well to take note of this: ASAN has at least one non-verbal autistic on its board, Amy Sequenzia, while A$ has no autistics at all on its board or in senior leadership.

As a concerned parent and "target demographic" for autism speaks I have to agree with the general "f*ck autism speaks" sentiment here.

They clearly don't speak for autistic people and they don;t speak for many parents either. they certainly don't speak for me.

My son is not broken. He's not ill. He's not damaged. He does not need a cure and even if that kind of reprogramming / brainwashing were possible I'd see it as child abuse and a complete violation of his rights. I guess I would view it with same contempt as Christian "homosexual cures therapies". Totally pointless, completely cruel and just well err evil.

Sure work out how we can help people with autism cope in this NT centric world
Sure work to raise awareness so NT's can make reasonable allowances for their autistic peers
Sure work to change education so that it serves different cognitive styles (and not just the autistic styles either!)
Sure work to educate professionals so they can spot autistic traits better
Sure work to educate mental health professionals on how to deal with the anxiety and depression experienced by many autistic people due to having to live in this prejudiced world (mental health issues are not intrinsic to the autism they are because of societies prejudices)

But a cure? No way, Bollocks to that its no more necessary than a cure for being left handed, red haired or gay.

Anyway rant over I guess.......

There are a lot of little issues with them that people like to talk about, but what it all comes down to for me is that their stated purpose as an organization (that autism is a disease/epidemic and needs to be cured) is diametrically opposed to what I believe.

My other issues with the way they spread their message, the way they allocate their resources, and who runs the organization ultimately all come back to the fact that they view autism (and thus autistic people, IMO) as something that needs to be eliminated. The fact that they do this without meaningful support or guidance from autistic people themselves is especially offensive.

I want a cure. Living with brain damage is not enjoyable.

Of the little I know about Autism Speaks, I support them & their continuing research into treatments. In fact, I emailed them my story about how I've effectively treated my own symptoms (see link in sig) and offered to correspond with anyone there if they'd like. They read my story and replied. AFAIK they're currently still funding research into diet/probiotic treatments & I look forward to hearing about their results.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I personally think Autism Speaks may be to blame for the Ebola outbreak. Well okay, maybe not.
They only talk about children with autism, as if there are no adults with it. Maybe they think we disappear from the world the second we turn 20.
They think that autism is a disease that desperately needs to be cured, even if the cure ends up doing terrible things or even killing people with Autism.
They are abusive towards Autistic children.
They want us to believe getting vaccinated will give kids autism, and because of that childhood diseases have begun to rise. Even though there is no real proof vaccines cause autism, some parents can't get that through their thick skulls.

I have Asperger's. It's who I am, and it's what makes me a unique person. I do not want to be cured. I want the ignorance, prejudice and general stupidity of NT's who act like we're a waste of human flesh to be cured. But all the scientific research in the world couldn't do that.

Autism Speaks is like one of the bad apples in a whole barrel.