Aspies For Freedom

I HATE when pro-cure groups talk about "Having a voice for us" I can't tell you how much that ticks me off. We have A voice of our own, And don't need theirs. And our voice is telling them we don't want to be cured. Yet they say they have a voice for us and we want to be cured. It's so sick what they say about us now-a-days. Aspies should be left alone to live their lives how they please. Think of it this way, If they have a so-called voice for us they should be Agienst a cure. I just hate it when they use the Phrase of having a voice for us, They dont know the true meanings of that phrase, And if they want to use it, They should use it correctly. I should get on a rant about this but I dont feel like it. Do you feel the same way? Post here

This is how I understood it.

"They now have a voice" "We gave them a voice" "We give aspies a voice" etc.

My translation of "we give them a voice".. "We are patting our egocentric backs right before your very eyes and ears. We said we have a voice for aspies, but we will make it look like we actualy have info by useing pretty words and speaches for our agenda. We don't nessicarily need proof that we are indeed talking for them because we think, and want you to think to, that aspies have no future. We want you to think there is no hope but this cure.

"We want you to think that the child should never succeed or be hystorical even, but be just another norm type. The cure to turn them into a copy of the norm sterio type is the only way! Difference is a disease. My pretty words urge you to cure this inferior subject, and put their life at risk so they can only be like a norm. Giftedness doesn't egsist! There is only a problem. Only we can give you a light at the end of the dark, trecherous, violent, whicked, saitanly, horrible tunnel of AS."

If that wasn't kind of what they were saying, then they must be lieing. Do they seriously think that the trials and difficulty of life don't help us learn some wisdom?! [/b]

I agree with you completely.

Yeah, but then they say that we can not speak for autistic people because we have Asperger's.  We have autism too but it does not seem to matter to them because they say there is really not that much wrong with us, we can communicate, we can look "normal", we can get jobs etc.  They say a cure would be great for people who have low functioning autism.  How can we deny people who can not talk etc a chance etc blah, blah, blah.  Haven't we hear it all before?

Any research for treatments, cures or genetic testing will affect people with Asperger's as much as anyone else with autism.

Autism Speaks is an example of a phony voice.

Seriously. Autism Speaks does NOT speak for us. Dx

Autism Speaks would make us slaves if they could, They speak for NTs, Not autisitcs.

Not strictly true.  A lot of people involved with Autism Speaks really honestly believe that they are doing the best thing for autistics.  Which only makes the whole thing so much sadder.  It's also why they tend to get so upset when you try to make them see our perspective.  They'd have to admit they were wrong this whole time.  To be honest, it reminds me of trying to make a devout christian renounce their faith.  The harder you try, the more they resist, until they get really angry and just start insulting and threatening you.

They're generalizing non verbal autistics and "lumping us all together," so to speak, when they say that.

The only way that Autism Speaks could be a voice for autism would be if their board was mostly made up of people with ASD's.
And not people with ASD's that have been told all their life that they are flawed, a burden to society, umong other negative stereotypes, because then their opinion will be skewed, and not the true opinion of autistics.

If they actually went out of their way to actually help people with ASD's, and improve their lives, give help for their weaknesses, and provide support for those who need it, instead of giving the world a negative impression of autism, and most importantly giving the autistics themselves a feeling that they are worthless and unwanted, then I might be able to conjur up some respect for them.

I mean people with ASD's who have been told to the point of believing it.

The following is their mission statement/goal... I think they need to refocus their goals... I have no issue with them wanting to help... they need to talk about dealing with low functioning autistics, make the differentation about the autistic spectrum... the terminology of "curing" is way off base for a lot of autistics....


"At Autism Speaks, our goal is to change the future for all who struggle with autism spectrum disorders.

We are dedicated to funding global biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatments, and cure for autism; to raising public awareness about autism and its effects on individuals, families, and society; and to bringing hope to all who deal with the hardships of this disorder. We are committed to raising the funds necessary to support these goals.

Autism Speaks aims to bring the autism community together as one strong voice to urge the government and private sector to listen to our concerns and take action to address this urgent global health crisis. It is our firm belief that, working together, we will find the missing pieces of the puzzle."

Autism speaks has never truly been about helping autistics - it has always been about helping the NT parents who do not like the idea of having autistic kids, all the BS about helping autistics is exactly that - BS. I can recall standing face to face with dame stephanie shirly (the woman who runs the UK branch of autism speaks) and asking her what they're actually doing to help and I could not pin her down on anything. I later emailed her and asked again, she still didn't give any specifics and I have since found that by law they cannot provide services for autistics as it is not in their registered goals as a charity.

Make no mistakes, the ones at the top of these organisations will do anything to shut us up and do not care, regardless of the image they try to project (if I had met this woman in different circumstances I would probably have walked away thinking how polite she was). What saddens me is that few people truly see what's currently happening, and the ones who do are not acting.

No one is listening to me.  Sadly they all say "Well, you ONLY have Asperger's.  You are not so badly off."  What?  Maybe it is because people with Asperger's can communicate a bit more effectively but not enough to be listened too.  Frustration that ends in suicide. That kind of communication is not what I want to see.

I can not sit back and wait for broad use of prenatal testing to eliminate people with "low functioning" autism or allow people with autism to be tortured in institutions.  They need someone to speak for them because they have no voice.  

My voice is weak but I have something to say.  I do not think self-immolation in a public place is ok either.  One of my friends with AS jumped in front of a train and no one ever even discussed why he did what he did.

I once went to a conference.

Not an autism conference.

A conference generally on alternatives to institutions for people with developmental disabilities.

Anyway.

There was this guy there, apparently a big-name parent-advocate.  I don't recognize social hierarchy very well (which I consider positive) so I started challenging some things he was saying.

Anyway, he was talking about plans for what "parents and professionals" needed to do.

Now, I happen to know that in many states, people with developmental disabilities ourselves have taken the lead in these things, so I was pissed off about being left out.

And said so.

Said specifically, "What about us?"

He kept trying to ignore that I was talking, so I started repeating it and even added in some body language I'd learned from a shrink about how to appear dominant to a dog.  (At which point magically I became visible.  Amazing.)  And held my keyboard up so everyone could hear it while I was repeating "what about us?"

He told me the following:

That parents are the heart of this movement.

That self-advocates collectively only had a voice because a guy named Gunnar Dybwad had given us one.  (News to me.  We have all had voices for a long time.)

And that basically we could only get in the way.

So, patting themselves on the back for giving us a voice, and attempting to make a power play and retain control over us.

NOT a good thing.  Blech.  (Nor is being faceblind and unable to recognize that the next day the guy trying to talk to you condescendingly in the breakfast line is the same jerk you met last night.)