G’s Place

I have been neglecting this blog, blame it on midterms.

But I wanted to post this story about how Autism Speaks lobbied back-room deal that made a bill to ensure insurance companies covered treatments for autistic kids pretty much useless. The autism community rallied around the PA House Speaker, the one who introduced the bill (who has a nephew with autism btw).  Apparenty Autism Speaks was playing political games to get a national insurance policy in place (would that too be watered down? Is this what happened in FLA - where autism services are horrendous?)

Wow. Autism Speaks has an “Autism Votes” initiative. They are a very powerful lobbying agency.  And they think people like my daughter need to be cured. Very Very Scary.

An autistic person on aspieweb.com created a t-shirt that says: “Autism Speaks” can go away - I have autism I can speak for myself.

Autism Speaks contacted Zazzle.com (the online store aspieweb was using to sell the shirts) and had them pull the shirts for copyright infringement.

So, have they actually copyrighted the term “Autism Speaks”? Or are they just bullying the autistic folk who are sending out a negative message about the charity?

So I am watching Vh1’s Rock the 80s hour - a commercial comes on about VH1’s autism campaign.  People need to really start thinking CRITICALLY about what these cure autism campaigns are telling you:

•  All of a sudden all of these kids are being diagnosed
•  No one knows where it comes from
•  THERE IS NO CURE

So, does that mean perhaps in previous generations, autistic kids were misdiagnosed with something else? Do the kids grow out of it? Is it possible autism is genetic? Is it possible there is no cure because it’s a different way of being?

The site is actually better than the commercial - which is very horrible. We need to stop thinking in terms of a cure, and start thinking in terms of education about differences. We need the full spectrum of people in order to have a fully functioning society.

Bev over at Asperger Square 8 has had a couple of thought-provoking posts on the topic of what is “awareness“.

I thought I relate an awareness story (it beats writing my paper).

Brianna and I were in ToysRUs, who have a program going on right now with Autism Speaks. So there are posters up all over the store, with puzzle pieces missing. Brianna say this one:

….and gave it a new caption. It was something like “Doh! The puzzle is why can’t you people figure this out? I’m fine - it’s the rest of you that don’t understand!”

Anyways, maybe Brianna will comment and tell me how I got that wrong.

Here are my blurbs for autism month:

We are having our first parent support meeting in Hopedale MA. It’s for parents of teens and young adults with Asperger’s. We are affiliated with the Asperger’s Association of New England. Our first meeting is April 2 from 6:30 - 8:30 PM at the Hopedale library. Feel free to email me if you have any questions - or just show up!

There is an awesome article written by a woman who is a manager at CNN, and also aspie.

Bev has posted a great awareness video.

And my (not-so) little aspie will be graduating from college with honors.

!!!!

Go see the new bumper sticker on Asperger Square 8.

Related stories here and here.

Remember the story about the aspie girl who was bullied by autism speaks? Well, the story got farked. I submitted to BoingBoing, they ignored it. meh.

Digg the story here.

Check out ntspeaks.com

I guess it’s all good now…autism speaks told the girl to change her theme, but they kept the domain. Bastards.

no seriously…I didn’t like those people before. Now, I don’t like them at all.