(Source: residenceonearth, via takkilar)
(Source: finalproblem, via goldenheartedrose)
Why I am against Autism Speaks (made rebloggable by request)
Autism Speaks is probably the most well-known charity out there when it comes to autism. Just because they have the most media coverage and celebrity support does not mean they are a good organization.
- Autism Speaks does not have a single autistic member on their board.
- Autism Speaks only spends 4% of their budget on “family services”.
- The majority of Autism Speaks’ money goes toward research, and the majority of that research is to find a way to rid the world of autism, and thus, autistics.
- Autism Speaks produces advertisments, small films, etc. about what a burden autistic people are to society.
- Autism Speaks was responsible for “Autism Every Day”, which featured a member of their board talking about contemplating murder-suicide of her daughter in front of her daughter. This has now be removed from Autism Speaks’ Youtube channel but can still be found elsewhere.
- Autism Speaks is responsible for the atrocity known as “I am Autism”, a short film comparing autism to cancer, AIDS, and blaming autism as the reason why marriages break up.
In short, Autism Speaks makes it much harder for those of us who have autism to be taken seriously. Autism is considered to be a child’s disease (not that it’s even actually a disease at all), and you will often hear people say “where are all the adult autistics?” Well, we’re right here in front of you. We may have been misdiagnosed with learning disorders, mental retardation and other mental illnesses when the diagnoses of autism, PDD-NOS and Asperger’s weren’t as precise (or even existent) as they are now. We vary in where we fall on the spectrum. Don’t make assumptions about us because we can use a computer.
For further reading, here are a few resources about Autism Speaks:
Why Autism Speaks is No Good for Autistics.
Autism Speaks Does Not Speak for Me.
I’m Autistic, But Autism Speaks Doesn’t Speak for Me.
An Autistic Speaks about Autism Speaks.
A Chart Regarding Autism Speaks’ Allocation of Funds
Editing the original post so that I can include which Autism related charities to support. Let me say that besides the first one, all of them are very parent-oriented organizations, meaning that adult autistics may have issues with them. These are ones that I have either heard recommended highly by autistic parents (meaning autistic people who are parents, not “autism parents”) or that I’ve personally interacted with. None of them are perfect, but these are far better places to donate your money if you’re looking for a charity to support.
Autistic Self Advocacy Network
The Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism
The ARC (this is not autism specific, but our local one has a couple of autism-specific events, so was worth including).
It’s officially 30 minutes before April is over here on the west coast, so um, I’m reblogging this just one more time. I still have to blink in amazement at the number of notes this has received. Amazing.
Also, because I’ve had people ask, I am 100% fine with you reproducing this information. I am more concerned with getting the message out there than anything else, though it is nice to be credited (and if you need a name to use, my name is Rose Jordan).
Street style from Paris: Anne Catherine Frey wearing The Kooples jacket, vintage shirt, J Brand jeans, vintage hat, Balenciaga cuff, Alexander Wang bag.
Image by Candice Lake
(via dapperdean)
Best Enjoyed with Headphones: If you think marijuana should be illegal then no
The reasons marijuana is illegal are rooted heavily in racist, ableist, and slut-shaming ways of thought, and it simply is impractical to be fighting marijuana in a war on drugs.
Let’s first consider racism: though whites are just as likely to use pot as blacks are, black people are 10x more likely to be arrested for possession. Because in order to arrest someone you have, in most cases, to either invade a space or search someone- and the spaces invaded in search of marijuana are almost always low-income, primarily black spaces. The bodies searched for marijuana are primarily black bodies. Because colored neighborhoods and bodies are the suspicious ones.
Then there is the slut-shaming element- marijuana was labeled even in the 1930s as a drug which caused women to be promiscuous, and the crackdown on pot which happened from the ’60s forward was largely due to a perceived tie between promiscuous people and the drug.
AND THEN there is the ableism that is clear in that disabled people have been recorded as using marijuana for purposes including the treatment of anxiety, depression, and chronic pain since as early as 2700 BC and it is still demonized to the extent that it is impossible for disabled people to have access to it in many parts of the country. Because who really cares if they say it works for them- clearly we non-disabled folks know better.
Add onto that the fact that other countries have legalized marijuana without seeing jumps in crime rates, and that 90% of marijuana cases don’t result in trials (wasting hours of police officers doing paperwork and taxpayers dollars that pay them) and we begin to see demonizing marijuana as not just culturally odd but economically unreasonable.
There is no valid reason I can be jailed for having pot on me but can go to the store and buy alcohol. None.
Always reblog.
Dear white queer community,
There are proper ways to learn from previous equal rights movements, and to expand upon them. Perhaps the first would be to apply the desire for equality within our own community, because there’s a lot of racism and sexism and anti-trans* fuckery within it.
But you can learn. You can take these experiences you’ve heard about and you can grow as a person, apply what you’ve learned throughout your interactions during your life. You can learn about Jim Crow laws and take the fervor and passion within you for this movement and make sure it extends to the POC in your community.
You cannot take the struggles of POC and whitewash them to throw onto your queer rights movement. That’s tacky, for starters, but more seriously, it’s incorrect, it’s offensive, and it’s just entirely unnecessary.
Please stop. We are better than this. We are better than perpetuating this kind of bullshit.
With love,
a white queer person who thinks y’all need to get your shit together.
(Source: duskypants, via goldenheartedrose)
(Source: designingtheenemy, via mydarkling)
