Why I'm Against Autism Speaks

* * * UPDATE 2016: Do not engage the user known as "Seeing Clearly Media". I blocked them and tried to remove all their comments, but I still get notifications that people are arguing with them. "Seeing Clearly Media" does not want to listen, they want to argue and shove their cure agenda. Block and ignore them, they will not change their mind and I'm tired of the circular arguments showing up in my notifications. Thank you. ************** A copy of the speech I wrote and read is below. **All dislikes are from people who would rather be ignorant than search for the truth themselves. I feel sorry for you.** *** Autism Speaks is the most offensive organization out there to autistic people. If you participate in their "Light it up Blue" puzzle piece garbage, you are not supporting autistic people, and I'll tell you why. Autism Speaks uses fear, stigma and ableism to make autism look like a fate worse than death. Autism Speaks dehumanizes autistic people. How would you feel about someone saying they would rather have a dead child than someone like you? Autism Speaks says I am a burden. Autism Speaks says I am an epidemic. Autism Speaks calls me broken and in need of curing. Autism Speaks wants to prevent people like me from being born. Autism Speaks promotes therapies that are damaging and traumatic for the sake of making people like me look normal. Autism Speaks sympathizes with the parents who murder their autistic children. Autism Speaks doesn't have a single autistic person on their staff. Only four percent of the money Autism Speaks makes goes to help families. The rest is spent on eugenics and research. Do I look like a disease to you? Do I look like I need to be fixed or cured? I wish I was joking, but Google the terms "Autism Speaks controversy" and you'll see the truth. Autism Speaks not speak for autistic people. Autism Speaks is a bully, and I don't like bullies! You're much better off supporting the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, or ASAN. They have autistic people on staff and they know what they're talking about. Nothing about us without us. If you want to use a color to support autistic people, use red. The Walk In Red movement is a counterpoint to the offensive Light it up Blue. Autistic people support this by wearing red to promote autism acceptance, which is much better than simple awareness. Wearing red in April shows you see autistic people as humans who are wired differently rather than diseases who need a cure. Cancer is something that needs curing. Autism is not. I'm not broken or made wrong. I am not a disease or an epidemic. I don't accept the notion that I have to remove a vital part of my identity to fit in. Temple Grandin, one of the most famous autistic people out there, has a quote: "I am different, not less." I want to take the quote a step further. I am not a puzzle piece. I am Cyndi. I am different, not less.