Today I unfortunately found out about a foundation that is scarily similar to Autism $peaks. It's a non-profit "charity" called the EJ Autism Foundation located on Long Island in New York. The foundation wants to "fight the mystery" of autism. The foundation also says that "There is no cure for autism but there is hope." and "Therapies that target specific signs of autism can achieve substantial improvement". They also get sponsored by places like Bubba's Burrito Bar and East Islip Soccer Club.
Anon, I’m sorry you had to find out about this, but thank you so much for sending this in. Fight the mystery … oh for the love of my precarious sanity, seriously!
There’s a lot of bad autism organisations and so much less discussion about them, which makes it hard for us and those who support us to know who is and isn’t good, and I am glad, anon, for the opportunity to talk about this a little more. Autism $peaks has earnt their hate more than deservedly, but I think we need to open up conversations to include other hateful “charities”. For example, A$ doesn’t have a lot of presence here in Australia, but we have our own collection of state non-profits that need speaking about. The same goes for all the smaller charities and organisations, wherever they are, who are causing the same harm (just with a smaller public profile).
I despise Amaze, which is the state non-profit autism organisation here in Victoria, Australia. Especially for the unforgivable, condescending line on their adult autistics info page: “Individuals on the Autism Spectrum Can Make Friends”. In addition to their being awful, person-first language that insists on using “individual” and spreading misinformation about autism and gender, of course, because that line is only the terrible icing on the cake of hatred and fail.
(Wow, I did not know that I can make friends! Or that I even should! I so needed a bunch of allistics to tell me how important friends are and that friend-making is an allistic skill on which I need to work! *rage-flaps* ETA: this line infuriates me so much I went into sarcasm mode without specifying. I’m so sorry!)
I’ve also heard bad things about the UK’s Autistica - their heavily research-focus language (and person-first usage) doesn’t fill me with confidence. I don’t know how much they’ve improved now they’re no longer affiliated with A$, however, so if a UK person could fill us in, I’d be grateful.
Likewise, if you know of an organisation that claims to support us but causes harm, I’d be so grateful if you’d comment away, because I will add this information to the post.
I think it’s time we let these awful groups share the stage with the awful A$, because we need to know who else claims to support us and actually wounds us. And while it’s April 30 already here in Australia, I’m thinking that next year, in the lead up to April, I’d love to see some of these awful organisations talked about with the same frequency we discuss A$.
Thank you so much for this ask, anon. Thank you.
In America there’s an organization called TACA, or Talk About Curing Autism. It’s right in the name. They’re just like Autism $peaks and the cure culture/tragedy culture/autism parent martyr culture/ETC. is rampant and disgusting I went to their home page to check that they’re actually a national thing and it was… bad. Really bad.
Oh ye gods. Just the name makes me want to beat them over the head with a glitter baton. I took a look myself, and, honestly, I don’t recommend anyone else checking them out, because they’re awful on their landing page and get successively worse. Definitely a worthy addition to this list, and thank you for both enduring that hell and letting us know about their hate and awful.
