As World Autism Awareness Month is coming to an end, our community is flooded with “Walks for Autism” and “Autism Benefit Dinner”s. With their puzzle pieces pinned to their blue shirts people “advocate” for the autistic community this one month out of the year. But take a minute of your time to hear the truth of Autism Awareness, in all it’s stigmatized glory.

In my opinion, World Autism Awareness Month is strongly backed by the corrupt and bigoted organization, “Autism Speaks.” I believe this organization uses degrading symbolism to emphasize autism as a burden to those affected by it. Not only has this organization used offensive marketing strategies, slogans, and “personal stories,” Autism Speaks is not an equal representation of the autistic community. In spite of their ostensible support, not a single member on the Board of Directors actually has autism, being the FIRST organization with not one member being directly affected by the condition it is supporting.

Sounds fishy, right? That’s only the beginning of it.

Autism Speaks is vigorously requesting donations and using offensive marketing strategies for fundraising, yet only a slim 4% of the budget is reinvested into the lives of those who live with autism along with their families. A large part of their budget is dedicated towards research, but research for what exactly? Only a minuscule 1% of the research budget actually goes toward research of service quality and the general quality of life for those living with autism.

But their budget and money allocations are not my biggest concern.

My biggest concern lies in Autism Speaks’ marketing tactics. Generally, their advertising is dehumanizing and degrading to the autistic community; referring to individuals with autism as burdens to society. One of the most widely debated advertisements, “I Am Autism” which made it’s debut in every living room in the United States in 2009, threatened that autism, “knows where you live”, “works faster than pediatric AIDS, cancer and diabetes, combined”. Now let me take a minute to ask, what does autism have to do with pediatric AIDS, cancer and diabetes? And is this organization really referring to autism as fatal and devastating as those children who suffer from AIDS, cancer, and diabetes? I understand from a numbers perspective, the numbers are comparable, but by comparing autism to fatal illnesses that cause huge amounts of grief and distress is just an outrageously low guilt-tactic that the company uses in order to increase their fundraising margins. This is the exact reason that the world sees autism as a “disability”. Something that people say, “your son/daughter is autistic? I’m so sorry, life must be so hard for you”. This Autism Speaks culture has cultivated the negative and insulting stigma that autism has today, and let me tell you, autism is the furthest thing from a “disability."

Temple Grandin is an American professor of animal science at Colorado State University (who has discovered many breakthroughs in animal and livestock behavior), an award winning author, and the subject of an award-winning semi-autobiographical film, Temple Grandin. She explains the brain of autism in the most inspiring way here as she dives into the ins and outs of a brain with autism from first-hand experience. Autism is an unique strategy of thinking which strengthens individuals intellect and mental capacity with it's strategic organizational skills, visual learning, and close-to photographic memory that most individuals with autism have.

Autism is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever known. Autism is incredibly kind, loving, and uplifting. It never insults, degrades or lessens. Autism builds up, strengthens, and inspires. A father went viral with his video addressing the public opinion of down syndrome and it is equally as accurate for autism; or more so the entire category modern society labels as "disabilities"

So as Autism Awareness Month draws to a close, I encourage you to go out and show your support for the autistic community, but don’t do it with an organization who ostensibly supports autism independently. Express how beautiful of a gift autism is and how wonderful it can be. Show how caring and selfless autism is, how humble it loves, how inspirational and moving it is and embrace it for all its beauty. Experience autism, learn from it, “for an educated man does not have more to teach than my son”.