April is Autism Awareness Month, which means that recently a lot of talk of the organization Autism Speaks and their "light it up blue" phenomenon has been circulating, especially here at my university. I've seen countless posters and Facebook statuses encouraging folks to wear blue in support of autism awareness.

Well, I'm here to tell you why that's a load of f*cking bullsh*t.

Now, if you are one of the people who thought Autism Awareness Month and "light it up blue" was a good cause, or even worse, actually participated in it, or if you are simply one of the many people not informed of the actually ill-driven purpose of this awful organization, you may be wondering, "Why, Anastasia, do you think Autism Speaks is bad?"

Autism Speaks claims their mission is "to is to change the future for all who struggle with an autism spectrum disorder. We are dedicated to funding global biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatments and a possible cure for autism. We strive to raise public awareness about autism and its effects on individuals, families, and society: and we work to bring hope to all who deal with the hardships of this disorder. We are committed to raising the funds necessary to support these goals" (taken from their website).

So, friend, you may now be questioning, "What's wrong with raising awareness for autism? It does make people's lives hard, right?"

Uhhh, just that. We don't need to raise "awareness" for autistic people. We need to raise support for them. No, not support for awareness of them, support for actually them. We don't need to find a cure for autism in the same way we need to find a cure for, say, cancer-- because autism is not an illness. It's an intellectual disorder that simply causes individuals to process things differently. It doesn't "hurt them and their families." Yes, those living with autism have it a bit more challenging than those who don't, but an intellectual disorder only means they are different, not sick.

If you want to look for a cure for any mental condition of some sort, try depression. Because that's an actual illness that actually does need treatment. And I can tell you firsthand that that's something that is a burden to live with. Being on the autism spectrum is not. I don't have actual autism, but I do have a few intellectual disorders that put me on the autism spectrum, like a learning disability and Aspergers (and possibly ADHD too). I can already tell you from the viewpoint of someone on the spectrum how vile I think this so-called "support" group is, so I can't imagine how offensive things like what they say must sound to actual autistic people.

There is a whole section on the AS website (or maybe ASS is a more appropriate acronym, since that's what they are, asses) about how autistic people's families can deal with it. Now, I already knew going into it that reading this would pain me because, hey, there is no advice for the actually autistic people. Only for their families. As if, I don't know-- they want to alienate people on the autism spectrum so much, that they think we can't even read? Or be capable of helping ourselves? Or that we're not the ones being affected, that our families are, and they're being hurt by our "issues."

Seriously, stop f*cking alienating those with autism. Stop telling us autistic people are a burden to their families. Stop telling us they're something their families have to "live with" and "learn to cope with." What autistic people really need is acceptance. Not awareness. If you feel like you need to treat someone differently because of some issues they may face that hold them back from functioning as well as neurotypicals, then fine, treat them differently-- but in a way that benefits and uplifts them. Not in a way that makes them out to be a burden.

Oh, and by the way, Autism Speaks does not actually "speak." Not for those with autism, at least. Because guess what? There isn't a single actually autistic person involved with it! The board members are all neurotypicals! Hey, AS(S), maybe you should let people actually diagnosed with autism speak for themselves. Contrary to your belief, they are capable of doing so. Maybe if they focused their mission more on allowing autistic people to actually speak, rather than funding research of a "cure" and "prevention" or contriving a bunch of sob stories from parents of autistic children about how difficult their families' lives are and what it's like to "deal with" a child diagnosed with autism, more individuals-- especially more autistic individuals-- would take them seriously.

Oh, but I'm not done yet. That's not even the worst part. Guess what else? AS advocates eugenics! They say they want to fund finding a cause for autism so it can be prevented. So, how do they want to prevent it, exactly? Well, it basically comes across as supporting parents aborting their babies if they end up being autistic. And this wouldn't be an entirely wrong conclusion to come to because AS has released a video in which one of the staff openly discusses how she wants to murder her autistic child. Days later after the release of this video, another woman actually did kill her autistic child.

I could go on and on for several more paragraphs about how dehumanizing AS is, however I am sure by now (if you're any kind of compassionate human being) you're horrified enough to get the point. So that being said, I hope you go on from here with a purpose to never speak in support of AS again! If you want to donate to or dedicate your time to helping those with autism, that's great. However there are other, much better organizations you can invest in, such as those that actually strive to achieve acceptance for autistic people, or even better-- those actually run by autistic people. ASAN is an autism support network created entirely by those on the autism spectrum. Also, GAP, GRASP, SARC, and USAAA are all resources that actually look to benefit those with autism.