How Autistic People are Marginalized

Not many people recognize that the autistic community is a marginalized one, and even more so for self-diagnosed autistics. Autistic people are often marginalized through misinformation including, but not limited to:

Erased

Many people don’t know that autistic adults exist because of these two popular myths.

Fundraisers and events surrounding autism awareness are often designed for children such as using bright colors, “fun” fonts, and cartoonish graphics.

Stigmatized

Much of the information out there uses language that describes autism as a disease, scares parents into thinking their child won’t have a fulfilling life, takes away their child’s future (and happiness), and is something worth mourning when receiving an autism diagnosis

It’s even being used by younger generations as a slur to replace the word “retarded.”

Invalidated

• People who self-diagnose are often not believed
• Getting a diagnosis, especially as an adult, is a privilege and a difficult one at that
• it’s not always covered by insurance
• most of the criteria are based on studies done on young, white, boys in distress so people who are not children, white, cis male, or not currently in distress are often misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all if they get an evaluation

Abused by the Medical System

Autistic children and adults are abused by medical professionals. ABA founder Ole Ivar Lovaas, who is also the founder of gay conversion therapy, is known to have used shock treatment on children, among other forms of physical and emotional abuse. Even modern ABA focuses on compliance and overriding our internal judgment which leads to increased vulnerability to predators and aggressors.

This is also still happening today as the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center won a court case to overturn the FDA’s ban on the Graduated Electronic Decelerator so that they can continue using shock as punishment for oppositional behavior.

Infighting

There are many roles that are involved with autism. In the center, there are the autistic people themselves that make up the “autistic community.” Then there are the parents and caregivers of autistic children and adults. This is where you’ll find the Autism Moms, Dads, and Warriors, adults who have co-opted the identity of the people they care for. While it’d make a lot of sense for everyone to work together, things get sticky because these two groups fight over who is “right” when it comes to an autistic problem.

There’s also in-fighting among the different neurodivergent communities as people work to figure out themselves. Some people will attribute autistic traits to other conditions and vice versa. Many times, the comorbid and intersectional experiences are forgotten in these discussions.

And finally, there is a not-so-surprisingly amount of racism and general bigotry within the autistic community. A large portion of autistic people are literal thinkers, hypoempathetic, and inflexible, so naturally, change is often avoided. This means upholding the status quo and the status quo is largely white, straight, and cis-gendered men. Since change is challenging for autistic people, some of those who were diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome cling to that label despite knowing that it sets them apart from the “other” kind of autistic people (the ones with intellectual disabilities, specifically).

This subject is so important so I’ll definitely be writing more on this in the future.

Silenced

We continue to be spoken over by parents and medical professionals today. most information about autism is from an observer’s point of view and imposing their will to change our behavior to comply and become “indistinguishable” from our peers – a process that causes emotional trauma and mental illness.

When autistic people are claiming abuse, parents of autistic children and therapists don’t want to hear it because it “worked for them.” ABA and Autistic “treatment” programs are a billion-dollar industry, so it’s no wonder they don’t want to stop.

Killed & Murdered

Annually on March 1st is known as Disability Day of Mourning where disabled communities around the world remember people, including children, who have been killed or murdered by their parents and/or caregivers. It’s also disgusting on another level when news articles and media spin these tragic murders to minimize the grief. Instead of collectively grieving this loss and recognizing that the system failed this family, they’ll garner sympathy for the murderer who was overburdened and overwhelmed from caring for their victim. While they deserve sympathy, this is exactly how the system failed this family. They did not receive the right resources in time to prevent them from “snapping” and killing a vulnerable person.

Autistic and neurodivergent people have also been historically targeted for extermination by white supremacists. During the Holocaust, autistic children were used in horrible experiments, forcibly sterilized, and even euthanized, particularly by Nazi eugenicist Hans Asperger, the very man whom “Asperger’s Syndrome” is named after because those are the children he diagnosed as worthy of saving from the programs.

We are still being targeted for eradication because the hate group Autism Speaks partnered up with Google for a project called MSSNG. This project involves collecting and sequencing DNA specifically looking for the genes that contribute to autism. If they complete the project, there’s no reason why they wouldn’t start developing a cure to purge our “undesirable traits”.

Autism isn’t a disease and we don’t need or want to be cured.