By Andrew Kelly
Special to the Herald

I’m proud to live in a society that has resolved to accept those with disabilities. However, it seems like many of those who share posts about how they love people with autism on one hand are also the same people pushing conspiracy theory and pseudoscience that is ultimately more harmful to those on the spectrum than it is helpful.

For example, take the organization Autism Speaks. They claim to help people with autism, yet a paltry 4 percent of their budget is spent on actually helping people who are on the spectrum. Compare that to the 22 percent of their budget that is spent on fundraising, and it’s not difficult to see where their priorities lie. But the problems with Autism Speaks don’t end there. Also problematic is their mission statement of “ending autism.” Autism Speaks’ end goal isn’t to break down the societal stigma surrounding autism-it’s to end it by any means necessary. One of their goals listed on their website is to establish a prenatal procedure to detect autism in babies, which, as we’ve seen in similar efforts with prenatal tests for Down syndrome, will result in thousands of babies who are potentially on the spectrum being aborted. Autism Speaks is also more than happy to propagate long disproved myths about autism. In a YouTube short film put out by Autism Speaks, line such as “If you’re happily married, I will make sure that your marriage fails” and “You are scared, and you should be.” Autism Speaks has also put out videos of moms of children with autism talking about how hard their children have made their lives with their autistic children in the room with them, nonetheless! Put all this together, and it’s not hard to see that Autism Speaks isn’t dedicated to making easier the lives of people with Autism, it’s dedicated to raising money off vapid, upper middle class suburban moms who resent their own children, and as someone on the spectrum myself I find it incredibly insulting and offensive that the organization that is supposed to represent me wishes that I was never born.

But that isn’t the only way in which people who claim to support those with autism end up hurting more than helping. I have seen many a so called “autism mom” propagate the oft-disproved myth that the MMR Vaccine is the cause for their child’s autism, and not biodiversity in action. First, it must be said that Andrew Wakefield, the fraudulent con artist behind the original medical journal paper linking the MMR vaccine with autism, had proven conflicts of interest including a failed patent for his own measles vaccine and being paid by a lawyer trying to sue pharmaceutical companies. Being the rotten stain upon mankind he is, Wakefield now resorts to speaking at crank pseudoscience events, where he advocates that parents of autistic children torture– sorry, “cure” them with treatments such as chemical castration and putting literal bleach extract in their water in the form of Miracle Mineral Supplement. And despite being disbarred by the UK Medical Register and having his quack paper disproved by every major medical body worth their salt, there are millions of gullible, dim witted parents willing to torture their own children whom they resent so much with these “cures.”

I remember the first time my parents took me to an Autism Speaks march, where they spoke about how people with autism were strains on their families and how autism was a lethal disease that needed to be wiped from the face of the earth. I remember hearing all those times as a child and a teenager about how I was the “victim of a government conspiracy” and that in a perfect world, I would be a “normal” kid. I took this to heart, and I always grew up being conscious that something beyond my understanding was fundamentally flawed with me. This April is when I un-learn all the garbage that was taught to me as a child, and where I affirm that there is nothing wrong with me.

To anyone on the spectrum reading this who are being forced to take sham “cures” in a desperate attempt to make you “normal”-never doubt that you are worth so much as a person, and know that the people who tell you there is something wrong with you are the ones who are “wrong.” And to all the vapid, narcissistic “Autism Mommies” who resent their children for who they are and shove snake oil “homeopathic” treatments down their throat-stop saying you “love” or “support” people on the spectrum. You don’t.

Andrew Kelly is a senior at Benicia High School.

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