I wanted to share this letter I wrote to AutAdvo in response to two adults with AS that were claiming that autistics demanding to be themselves are just making up "excuses."
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I am physically disabled, autistic, and proudly open with everybody in my life about both. I have no choice, as I can't "fake" a normal body or a neurotypical brain. I also have a wonderful life partner, bachelor's degree from Berkeley, plenty of people IRL and online that seem to really like me (though I choose to not have "friends" as it is too stressful), a career path that will lead me towards a job compatible with my anatomy/brain. Anybody that treats me badly as the result of my autism gets a fight or kicked out of my life; any organization that will dare try to discriminate will quickly find that I am an empowered person and will use the court system to push them to conform to the ADA. The only time I feel like a "second-class citizen" is when I fail to be an open advocate for my kind and cower pretending to be something I'm not in hope that somebody else will come along and change the world for me. That is the attitude I grew up with as a disabled female, and I am very happy for it.
In no other disability, visible or invisible, is the escapist "pretend being normal" attitude the norm. People with diabetes, AIDS, cancer, VATER, Downs Syndrome, Spina Bifida -- all of us live not only with bodies that are dangerously malfunctioning, but do it openly even when they could hide it. The "able-bodied" community has gotten used to giving these individuals support, and most importantly, we have high self-esteem and are happy. Yes, that includes people that even had severe brain injuries (the most stigmatized form of impairment) -- one of my coolest professors at Berkeley didn't even *start* college until he almost died in his early twenties from being hit by a car. After years of rehab, he applied to some big-name university in his home country of Australia, was totally open about his disability and the accommodations he'd need, and so impressed the campus that he earned a scholarship straight through to his doctorate as well as fellowships all over the world!
Other groups have overcome even more. Gays, blacks, women -- all faced incredible acts of violence and even murder when they started fighting against their second-class citizenship. We have some bigots that call us names, but we don't have formally organized groups out to beat, maim, or kill us. Look at how far those groups have come...it wasn't done because they pandered to bigots, that's for sure!
Given everything I've seen disabled people do to earn our independence and civil rights.... What I see as "Excuses" in the autism world are all of the ACs that use excuses to justify hiding while brave individuals like Frank Klein, Amanda Baggs, Larry Arnold, and so forth do all the work. What's funny to me is that the NT-fakers don't even really fool anybody (having a boyfriend, close friend, and multiple family members that are AC, I should know): you're still clearly not "normal" in some sense, you simply won't tell people *why* you're so different.
Posted by moggy at November 08, 2003 11:09 AM | TrackBack
