Autism Speaks

[conuly]

Is evil.

Hopefully I don't need to restate that here.

We're heading up on April, and I thought it'd be "fun" to email their corporate sponsors asking them to knock it off and sponsor some other autism-centered organization. One that isn't evil.

They do list corporate partners on their site, but only those which donate 25k or more, and I know there are others. Many times I've had the unpleasant experience of picking up a bag of potato chips or spinach in the store and then realizing the full horror of what I was about to do.

Does anybody know the names of any others, smaller-scale but still bigger, presumably, than individual donors and more likely to pay attention to emails?

Comments

[sabotabby]

Well, they once partnered with Soldiers of Odin, but apparently Autism Speaks was not quite evil enough and broke off the arrangement once they heard.

I'm gearing up to fight the fight if it comes in my direction.

[bibliofile]

Well, we don't have to worry about the Toys 'R' Us sponsorship anymore.

[conuly]

Unexpected blessings.

[gingicat]

I honestly think the other way around is worse — a therapy or educational institution focused on ABA and/or medicalizing it because Autism Speaks says so.

But, let’s chat privately, and I can brainstorm a list of people to call.

[conuly]

Oh, god, that's a terrible thought. But I know how to get people to reconsider donating to AS - point out that they're really, really bad with money and greedy. That doesn't work to convince people to stop doing ABA. I haven't figured that out yet.

Warning: Poor wording ahead if past experience is any indication

[matt1993]

As someone with autism myself, I have a couple of confessions to make...

1) When I was a kid I was in ABA therapy for a couple of years - ages 2-4 I think. (I'm 24 now) Or at least I think it was ABA therapy. And this entry (combined with my social anxiety) makes me feel like I'll be hated just for that.
2) It wasn't until I'd seen people in one of the autism communities on LJ yell at anyone who said they support Autism Speaks for (as it seemed at the time) no reason that I Googled "why do people hate autism speaks so much" and finally found a not-as-harsh-sounding explanation of the reasons the majority of that community (and other autism communities) are against it. Granted, this was a few years ago, but still, I often feel like people will hate me just because I had to Google, when I was a teenager, to find out why people are so against AS.

I rarely bring this up on LJ or DW because again, social anxiety (I hope it's just my social anxiety speaking...) makes me worry about being hated for all of this. I hope we can still be friends in spite of these things...

Am I wording this very well? I'm probably not because I become less coherent when I worry that people will hate me. (Remember when I thought a lot of people would hate me for still liking/using LJ? How I feel when the subject of AS comes up is a lot like that, except even more so.)

Okay, here goes nothing...

Re: Warning: Poor wording ahead if past experience is any indication

[conuly]

Most of us have had the unpleasant experience of having to explain to a friend why AS sucks sooooo much. You already are ahead of the curve by trying to learn on your own.

Re: Warning: Poor wording ahead if past experience is any indication

[matt1993]

*biggest sigh of relief in human history*

Okay, good. I was worried (again) that people would hate me for that. (And I've probably bought products from companies that have donated to Autism Speaks, too. When I see lists of companies that donate to Autism Speaks - whether before or after that day that I Googled - I always worry that people will hate me for liking some of those products, too...)

In fact, I think I just realized that my experiences in those autism communities might actually be the root of the rest of my social anxiety... it's one of the first times I thought everyone in a community might hate me for something I'd previously thought there was no problem with, which, since I was 15 (and probably also because I'm autistic) was kind of traumatic for me, so it's probably part of why I tend to worry a lot about being hated if someone dislikes something that I like or have liked, whether there's a real-world issue involved or not. Is that weird?

And while I'm confessing autism-related opinions that I worry about being hated for: if I could choose to be neurotypical (maybe not across my whole life, but starting right now or a few years ago or something), I probably would. I often feel like I'd be a lot happier if I was neurotypical (though I felt this way even more when I was younger and therefore had no way to know for sure if I would ever succeed in college or a job interview or the like). I am aware that not everyone with autism feels this way, but I am one of the (apparently few) who does. And for a while I wasn't even aware that not everyone with autism felt that way, so in my LJ and the autism communities on LJ, I've made some pretty poorly-worded comments about it...

Speaking of poorly-worded comments, I hope this isn't one... did it make sense? :(

Re: Warning: Poor wording ahead if past experience is any indication

[conuly]

Yes, it did make sense. Though I don't have the energy to reply to it at this moment - have two dogs to wash, booooooo