Crusading Against Hate: Why I #BoycottAutismSpeaks Flashblog Announcement!

The past 10 yrs Autism Speaks has been spreading fear and hate about autism, while actively excluding Autistic people from their advocacy. At the end of 2013 after Suzanne Wright’s  infamous Call For Action, the grassroots movement Boycott Autism Speaks was created and has been going strong ever since.

The most current slap in the face has been the article in People magazine’s July 13,2015 issue in the feature Heroes Among Us.  Bob and Suzanne Wright are touted as hereos while using words like battle and crusading to describe their “advocacy” efforts. They also claim to give a voice to the voiceless.

Image is a page out of a magazine. In the top left hand corner it reads “Heros among us. Crusading against Autism. After their grandson was diagnosed Bob and suzanne Wright launched a battle against the disorder” Below in a smaller quote “We’ve given this voiceless community a big voice” says Suzanne (with husband Bob, daughter Katie Wright and grandson Christian, now 13″ the picture is of an older very rich privileged white couple standing to the right side of the picture. They are smiling, the woman is blonde, wear glasses and is smiling at the camera. the man is looking down at a couch to the left of them, where a blonde haired mother sits on a couch leaving over an awesomely Autistic boy with blonde hair and an adorable smile”

Image Description: When Bob and Suzanne Wright’s 2 ½ year old grandson Christian Hildebrand was diagnosed with autism in early 2004, they quickly found out how little was known about the disorder. “Basically, [the doctors] said goodbye and good luck” recalls Suzanne, 68, of Fairfield, Connecticut. Adds Bob: “They had no medical treatments, no real medical advice.” The couple spent the next several months travelling around the country to different autism events. “We saw all these parents, many of them had children who were 10, 11 and 12 who had never gotten any real help at all.” says Bob, 72, the former CEO of NBC Universal. Many had gone broke paying for treatments because their health insurance wouldn’t cover them. “We were so shocked” says Suzanne. “We came back and said, we have to do something.” And so they did. This year they are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the founding of their nonprofit, Autism Speaks (autismspeaks.org), which has raised millions for research into possible treatments and cures for autism and created toolkits for parents at each stage of their child’s life. But what they are most proud of is that now 41 states have some sort of health insurance coverage for autism treatments. “We had to go state by state, hat in hand.” says Bob, who recently stepped down as chairman of the organization. “It was a real battle.” For the future, the Wright’s say they are most excited about MSSNG, a research project with Google that they hope will bring answers about the genetic causes of autism. Parents like Jesse Mojica, whose 16 year old son Adam has autism, couldn’t be more grateful. Besides the practical help he got finding treatment for his son, “there as always somebody you could talk to, to give you emotional support.” says Mojica, 48, of New York City. “It was lifesaving.”

We are calling upon all Autistic people, our supporters,  and our loved ones to participate in this flashblog to help us prove we are not voiceless and that Autism Speaks does not speak for us!

crusading against hate: Why I #boycottAutismSpeaks flashblog july 16-17 2015 email submissions to boycottautismspeaksinfo@gmail.com whyiboycottautismspeaks@wordpress.com on a bright yellow back ground

What is a Flashblog?

A Flashblog is a day or days when a group of people share their thoughts about a single topic. Written words, images, art, all means of expression are welcome, and will be gathered and posted on this blog on Thursday July 16, 2015 and Friday July 17, 2015  Then we all share the Crusading Against Hate: Why I #BoycottAutismSpeaks posts throughout the day, across the web and the world, using social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest.

How to submit:

You do not need a blog of your own to submit!

Simply email your submissions to boycottautismspeaksinfo@gmail.com and in the subject put “Flashblog Submission”

Submissions can come in the form of attached documents and/or links to blogs.

Please let us know the following:

How you would like to be credited (either your name or alias… we can also print it to reflect an anonymous submission)

If you would like us to link to your site or blog , if you have one

If you have a blog let us know if you’d like for us to republish the entire piece on our site or just a partial republish with a link back to your blog

Guidelines:

Please don’t use functioning labels in your writings (high/ low.. mild/severe)

No cure talk. We do not seek a cure and will not promote anything that suggests such.

We  will not publish any pieces that refer to prevention of us or anything that links the false myth that vaccines cause autism.

If you have images in your blog or are submitting artwork, please include image descriptions . This is to ensure that our flashblog is accessible to all.

If you submit a video please include a transcript, again to ensure accessibility.

Please no gifs. Gifs can trigger those who have certain types of seizure disorders and it is literally a life and death thing for some.  We will not republish or promote anything with gifs in them.

Any submissions that are sent to us that are not made accessible to all (per the guidelines) may not appear in the flashblog. We have limited resources and are just unable to put image descriptions on all images we may receive or transcribe videos. We are counting on you all to help us with that.

However, if you have accessibility issues of your own and require assistance in making your submission accessible to all please do not hesitate to contact us. We aim to make this flashblog inclusive and accessible to all who participate and read it.

Any questions can be directed to boycottautismspeaksinfo@gmail.com.