Aspies For Freedom

ok now i laugh when Autism Speaks found out how old i was they dropped all charges and said "Just use a differant theme" but i think i'm going to stop running it because part of the deal was that Autism Speaks owns the domain/and hosting for it. i dont want them to have control over a site that is Anti-Autism Speaks.

couple things to say.

1. my boss/partner deleted all source code of ntspeaks
2. if he finds out that i told people about im dead
so...
3. i cant send it to the media
oh and...
4. he got the lawsuit in the mail i didnt (since hes my adult supervisor he gets my mail for websites) so i never saw the document... i talked to the lawyer and thats it.

anyway ty for the congrats

I agree with Flardox, the media should be more than sympathetic to you, as its you who has been wronged, and this is a stinker of a story, should it get out.

Flardox is on the right track with that last message.

AFF isn't the most pro-brotherhood place around, though. Peace through power isn't a policy that most members proscribe to...

Um, off the top of my head, I'm going to say that's a no...

Good for you, Abscout, and don’t you back down a bit.

The SOBs who run the local chapter of Autism Speaks, here in Cleveland, tried to have me arrested. Whether you think autism is influenced by environmental factors or you don't, I think most people would be appalled to know that somebody just standing on a public sidewalk politely handing out information would be threatened with arrest if they didn't cease.

First the SOBs tried to have me arrested outside of one of their benefit concerts, where I was handing out information about thimerosal. (I would ask people entering the venue if they would like some information about vaccine safety, and if they said yes I handed them a flyer, and if they said no, I let them pass.)  Two police cars showed up and police officers told me to leave and I refused. The chief of police eventually came and he told me I could stay.

Then, a few weeks after that happened to me, the local chapter president here in Cleveland, Ms. Shari Goldberg, posted on a local internet forum trying to raise money for Autism Speaks, which made me apoplectic. So I posted a reply to that forum, explaining the arrest attempt outside of the House of Blues on April 21 of last year, and I can't believe it but the biatch lied about it and said that nobody tried to have me arrested.

I took it upon myself to obtain a copy of the police incident report.

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~r_nemeth/HO...report.htm

Great, now I have a police record. The incident report says that I was 'threatening and harrassing' guests. I was doing no such thing. It also says that the House of Blues sent for the police, but it was the women of Autism Speaks who'd organized the concert there at the House of Blues who had told me that I'd be arrested if I didn't leave.

Goldberg has lied to me, and about me, publicly, and I'd sue her a&& if I had the resources to do it.

Autism Speaks is as corrupt an organization as exists this side of hell, except maybe for the CDC. I so want them brought down.

Robin Nemeth

Voices of autism 'silenced' by charity

    * 02 February 2008
    * From New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.
    * Celeste Biever


AN EXTRAORDINARY dispute has broken out between people with autism and a charity that aims to help them. At stake is how such people are perceived by the general public.

Like many people with autism, an autistic blogger who goes by the screen name "Abscout" is angry about the way the condition is portrayed by some charities. To try and paint a different picture, Abscout set up a spoof website called NTSpeaks.org, a parody of the site of the New York-based charity Autism Speaks. The NT stands for neurotypical, a term sometimes used by people with autism to describe the rest of the population.

Last week, however, in response to demands from Autism Speaks, Abscout took the site down. Autism Speaks claims the site infringed its copyright, and that it could have confused people looking for information about autism. That in turn has outraged Abscout's supporters, who say that Autism Speaks is suppressing the views of the very people it is supposed to represent and help.

"If we do speak, we're only allowed a voice if it agrees exactly with the people who say they're speaking for us," says Amanda Baggs, another blogger with autism based in Burlington, Vermont. "That keeps people believing the same thing Autism Speaks wants people to believe, including every negative stereotype of autism out there."

Autism Speaks says its aim is "to change the future for all who struggle with autism spectrum disorders". One of its stated goals is to "cure" autism - an aim some people with autism find offensive. "The autism spectrum is something that is intrinsic to our personalities," says Ari Ne'eman, president of the Autism Self Advocacy Network in Baltimore, Maryland. "We can no more separate the autistic part of ourselves than we could our gender or race."
“One of the stated goals of Autism Speaks is to 'cure autism' - an aim some people find offensive”

Particularly galling for people with autism, he says, is a video on the charity's site called Autism Everyday, in which mothers of children with autism talk about the emotional and financial impact the condition has had on their lives. "Autism Speaks puts out a very fear-based message," says Ne'eman.

NTSpeaks.org carried a much more assertive message. Under the slogan "Learn the signs of NTism", it listed "dislike for people who are different", "refusal to accept that there is a problem" and "conforming attitude". Another one of its headlines read, "NTs destroying AS/Auties pride and joy".

Autism Speaks says that people could have confused NTSpeaks.org with its own site, as it carried a similar logo. "If an improper use of our name or logo creates confusion among those we serve about the source of information, it is a disservice to all," a charity spokesman says.

Baggs insists there is a need for people with autism to publicise their own messages. She says the charities "change a lot about how autistic people are treated and understood by other people and by professionals".

Gareth Nelson, who founded the autism rights group Aspies For Freedom is doing his bit. In protest at Autism Speaks's actions, he has secured the NTSpeaks.net and NTSpeaks.com domains and posted new parodies of Autism Speaks there. "It is important to do this in order to stop Autism Speaks from simply silencing their critics and to show them that we are not going to sit back while they intimidate people," he says.

Mental Health - Discover the latest research in our continuously updated special report.
From issue 2641 of New Scientist magazine, 02 February 2008, page 9

why does JB have to be like that? He talks about people having brain disorder. And let's say, for the sake of argument he is right (which I don't think he is).

He then says that should people with 'brain disorder' decide what is best for other people with 'brain disorder'. Well, actually, yes! I work with people with disabilities, as well as having my own disabilities and only the disabled can tell you what works best for them and their peers - a non disabled person, even if they have read numerous books, can never know what works best or understand the reality of day to day existence for a disabled person in a world that wasn't designed for them.

Why does JB hate us all so much? What did we ever, ever, ever do to him?
Would he make the same comments about people of a particular ethnicity or religion or sexuality? Why don't people (other than those of us here at AFF and simialr groups) get as outraged about this kind of discrimination as they do about racism?

Sorry, I just thought that word redundant. Do you mean that there might be a way for thirty lawyers to bully a fourteen-year-old LEGALLY???!!!

i've just been speaking to my dad whos also an aspie about autism speaks and how they fund research at Cambridge. He wants to sue them because Cambridge are in England and under European law we are protected against Autism Speaks because they are publically being negative about disabled people. I don't know how far this will actually go but its a nice bit of hope.

why does JB have to be like that? He talks about people having brain disorder. And let's say, for the sake of argument he is right (which I don't think he is).

He then says that should people with 'brain disorder' decide what is best for other people with 'brain disorder'. Well, actually, yes! I work with people with disabilities, as well as having my own disabilities and only the disabled can tell you what works best for them and their peers - a non disabled person, even if they have read numerous books, can never know what works best or understand the reality of day to day existence for a disabled person in a world that wasn't designed for them.

Why does JB hate us all so much? What did we ever, ever, ever do to him?
Would he make the same comments about people of a particular ethnicity or religion or sexuality? Why don't people (other than those of us here at AFF and simialr groups) get as outraged about this kind of discrimination as they do about racism?

gee, how'd you guess?