Oh look, it's #AutismAcceptanceMonth, or officially #AutismAwarenessMonth but that really means #AutismBewarenessMonth because mostly it's allistic people telling other allistic people to beware of us.
I'm so tired of non-autistic people capitalizing on us and using this month to push their ableism and eugenics. I'm also tired of well-intentioned folks trying to do something helpful but they get it entirely wrong because they didn't even think to ask an autistic person if what they want to say would help. You know what we need for autism awareness? Allistic folks with platforms should lend their platform to autistic folks. No more of Hank Green foolishly promoting ABA because he's totally ignorant about autism and is just doing his job of confidently reading a script someone else wrote about it (as he did last year). I think about what that video might have been like if Hank had just introduced an autistic YouTuber and let them have the stage for 10 minutes, or perhaps had a back-and-forth conversation about the topic.
I wish there were a way to get *any* allistic creator/influencer/celebrity/politician to stand up for autistics the way some straight people stand up for gay and trans rights, the way some white people stand against racism, or the way some men stand up for feminism. But they don't - they just make jokes about us being awkward while autistically-coding fictional characters to make them more interesting and marketable.
