Autism Coalition: Fill & Download for Free

Adam Sandler is a smart actor. Not only is he funny, but he has his regular ensemble that comes along with him for his movies. He does do a lot of adult humor, but he also does a fair amount of kid safe movies as well (something not many actors/directors/producers can claim.)Yes, his early work is mostly moronic, but he has grown.I also like him because he uses his star power and money to help others. Some examples:Donated 400 Playstations to Israel for victims of the Israel-Lebanon war.Signed items for the VH1 and eBay auction and took part in the America: A Tribute to Heroes charity telethon for victims of 9/11.Performed at “Night of Too Many Stars” charity event raising money for the Autism Coalition, now known as Autism Speaks.Appeared in a video for the Chris Farley Foundation.In October 2007, he made a million-dollar donation to the Boys and Girls Club in his hometown of Manchester, New Hampshire.I like him as a comedian, and I respect him as a human being.

For what?I am autistic. I NEVER could hold a conversation with other autistic people. Why? Because our interests were different, they were harder to start a conversation with, and some of them were just straight-up assholes who tried to use autism as an excuse.Of course, “Not all” and shit like that, then being autistic wasn’t the point. The point was we weren’t compatible because of our fundamental differences as people, not because “They just autistic.”For a coalition to form, there has to be something powerful that binds them together which makes them want to converse with one another. And I hate to break it to you (No I don’t), but autism alone is a pretty weak foundation.Now, I’m not saying it can’t work. If it had something more like “Autistic people who also survived cancer” or “LGBT aspiring musician autistic teens” or even “Autistic adults with troubled childhoods” would all be good foundations for a coalition. But just autism on its own isn’t enough of a reason, especial considering, unlike LGBT, which is rather specific traits (And no, that QIIA nonsense doesn’t count), autism isn’t. It’s a broad classification where each individual only has a few things in common that makes them autistic.So no. For the most part, an autism coalition isn’t going to be all that valuable. However, add more modifiers, a clear, defined goal, and strong leadership, than maybe.

Let us first and foremost establish that the world’s leading autistic organizations are in their own selves, masquerading as benevolent, helpful and reliable, when they are nowhere near such.Forty-four percent of their funding goes as to harmful, stigmatic research. They condone films and movies that stereotype autism. This was founded by Autism Speaks:Autism Science Foundation - WikipediaThey mislead.They perpetrate stigma, stigma that has influenced professional’s views of me, not believing me to be autistic, in despite I first was diagnosed with Aspergers at age 8, a few years ago was told I don’t have it, but instead have borderline personality disorder. There is a 60% chance BPD is a misdiagnosis and I just have a very severe case of CPTSD that makes me appear borderline as the result of living around my parents, who have done some very abusive things to me.Autism Speaks and organizations as it, donate as to research that perpetrates of harm and stigma— including ones on empathy. Autism Speaks condones child abuse to people with autism as myself, blaming us as being the problem and that parents just don’t know how to cope, which is in degree true, but you should not defend or justify abuse, abuse that leads people with autism like me to develop symptoms that even look like borderline personality disorder.Even GameStop sadly, supports of it.The Ableist History of Autism SpeaksMany autistic people oppose Autism Speaks, as it has an extensive ableist history, and continues to perpetrate ableism today through its 100 Day Kit and stigmatizing PSAs about autism. Its logo uses the ableist puzzle piece for autism, a symbol that has promoted ableism since the 1960’s. Suzanne created the Autism Speaks logo as the blue puzzle piece as it was intended to “reflect how adrift and disconnected autism patients and their families could feel.” Suzanne calls autistic people “patients” as if they suffered from an illness or a disease. Autism Speaks continues to spread misinformation and fear mongering, pathologizing language about autism. And it continues to exclude autistic people from its leadership and decisions concerning autistic people.Autism Speaks was founded in 2005 by Bob Wright and his late wife, Suzanne Wright, grandparents of an autistic child, Christian. Bob Wright is extremely wealthy, and is the vice chairman of General Electric and was the CEO and chairman of NBC Universal from 2001 to 2007. As affluent as Bob and Suzanne were, after their grandchild was diagnosed with autism, they expected to get the best autism “treatment” for their autistic grandchild to “cure” him of his autism. After finding there is no cure for autism, they founded Autism Speaks out of their desire to find a cure for him and end what they believed to be an “epidemic” of autism. Suzanne said that she was “losing Christian,” as if autism was taking her grandson away from her. Right off the bat, Autism Speaks received an investment of $25 million dollars from American billionaire, Bernard Marcus, who was also the co-founder of Home Depot and is still active on the Autism Speaks board of directors. The company continues to be one of the largest fundraisers for Autism Speaks.Autism Speaks merged with the Autism Coalition for Research and Education in 2005, the National Alliance for Autism Research in early 2006, and Cure Autism Now in 2007. All three of these organizations support research into causes, treatment, and cures/prevention of autism. Autism Speaks funds the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange, which was established by Cure Autism Now and is a DNA repository available to autism researchers. It also funds the Autism Tissue Program, which is funded by the National Alliance for Autism Research and manages and distributes brain tissues donated for autism research. The National Alliance for Autism Research has given more than $20 million dollars to over 200 autism research and eugenics projects, and Cure Autism Now has given $39 million dollars for autism research grants focused on treating and curing autism. The flagship programs of Cure Autism Now included the AGRE, Autism Treatment Network, Clinical Trials Network, and Innovative Technology for Autism. Autism Speaks additionally supports the Clinical Trials Network, and Toddler Treatment Network, which both focus on interventions and treatments of autism on autistic children as young as infants and toddlers.Autism Speaks has huge corporate sponsors who donate anywhere from $100,000 to over $1 million dollars to Autism Speaks per year. Home Depot, Hersha Hospitality Management (HHM), Modell’s Sporting Goods, Nest Fragrances, Cherry Hill Programs, Charitable Auto Resources (CARS), and Wilson Sporting Goods have contributed anywhere from $100,000 to almost $500,000 per year to Autism Speaks. White Castle, Suntrust Foundation, and Quadrant Bioscience donate over $500,000 annually to Autism Speaks. The largest contributors of Autism Speaks includes GameStop and Dollar General, who donated over a million dollars to Autism Speaks annually. The college women’s fraternity, Alpha Xi Delta, also contributes over $1 million per year to Autism Speaks. Other sponsors of Autism Speaks include Samsung, Great Wolf Lodge, Sesame Street Workshop, and most recently, Kellogg’s and Lids Hats have partnered with Autism Speaks.One of Autism Speaks’ first fundraising events was in 2005 for Hurricane Katrina called “AutismCares” (not to be confused with Autism Speaks’ involvement in the Autism CARES Act, which I will discuss later). AutismCares was a project that Autism Speaks asked people to donate to for families with an autistic child who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina. Well, little of that money actually went to hurricane victims at all, but to executives, administration, and PR.In 2007, three members of Autism Speaks’ Board of Directors received $2.5 million for their own organizations unrelated to Autism Speaks. The president of Autism Speaks, Mark Roithmayr, received a five year contract for $2 million dollars, and had no background or knowledge about autism. There was a private airplane expense for $57,000 for someone who entertained at an Autism Speaks event.Of the $69 million that Autism Speaks made in 2008, over $600,000 was paid towards a single executive, Geri Dawson, who received $669,751 in 2008 including nearly nearly $300,000 to move her family from Washington to North Carolina. Over a quarter of funds for 2008 was used on employee compensation.In 2012, only 3% of Autism Speaks’ budget went to family services, while 36% went to salaries, benefits, and payroll taxes. 25% went to science grants and awards, 5% went to travel, lodging, meals, catering, and entertainment, and 4% went to advertisements and marketing. Yes, more money went to entertainment and marketing than to actually helping autistic people and their families. And that hasn’t changed much today, and in fact, even less of Autism Speaks’ budget goes to family services (less than 2%).Autism Speaks continues to raise funds from its Autism Walks, which it started from 2006. The first series of Autism Walks raised over $2 million dollars, and continue to provide money for Autism Speaks, although the number of participants has declined in recent years. Autistic advocates often show up at Autism Walks to protest, sometimes with chapters of autistic led organizations such as the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Autistics 4 Autistics, or Autistics United Canada, and sometimes on their own or with some friends, to send Autism Speaks a message that they do not represent or speak for them.Autism Speaks is notorious for its Public Service Announcements characterizing autism as demonic, a monster, or a tragedy. Its aggressive ad campaigns started in 2005, when The Today Show aired a week long series of ads highlighting autism research and treatment.Autism Speaks is responsible for films and PSAs (which are no longer available on its YouTube channel) that depict autistic people as aggressive, as monsters, as soulless, and as empty, hollow shells. It created the film, “Autism Every Day,” in 2006, which featured an Autism Speaks board member, Alison Tepper Singer, discussing the fact that she contemplated driving off a bridge with her autistic daughter, Jodie Singer, and that the only reason she did not do this was because of her neurotypical daughter at home. The interview was conducted in front of Alison’s autistic daughter, Jodie Singer, without regard that the daughter was right there and could hear everything the mother said about her. This film drew heavy criticism from the autistic community and from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. Alison Singer resigned from Autism Speaks in 2009 and went on to found the Autism Science Foundation. There was also a murder of an autistic three year old by her mother mere days after the video’s release. Rather than the pubic conversation being about how tragic it is that a young toddler was murdered, it was about how “heavy a toll” autism is on parents, and a murderer gained sympathy due to the rhetoric that Autism Speaks spread about how burdened and miserable autistic people are.Its most controversial PSA titled, “I am Autism,” released in 2009, characterizes autism as a demon or a monster. Billy Mann is a musician and a board member for Autism Speaks, and his celebrity status and influence in the music industry had convinced numerous celebrities in the music industry, such as P!nk, Dave Grohl, and Paul Simon to support Autism Speaks. Billy Mann wrote a poem with dark, dehumanizing language about autism that became the script for “I am Autism.” Billy Mann’s Parents submitted videos of their autistic children for the PSA when the press release for it advertised that it would use the footage to shine a “bright light” on autism. In reality, it clouded autism in darkness, using a deep, scary voice to say the following about autism: “I am autism. I’m visible in your children. But if I can help it, I am invisible to you until it’s too late. I know where you live. And guess what? I live there too. I hover around all of you. I know no color barrier, no religion, no morality, no currency. I speak your language fluently, and with every voice I take away, I acquire yet another language. I work very quickly. I work faster than pediatric AIDS, cancer, and diabetes combined. And if you are happily married, I will make sure that your marriage fails. Your money will fall into my hands, and I will bankrupt you for my own self-gain. I don’t sleep, so I make sure you don’t either. I will make it virtually impossible for your family to easily attend a temple, a birthday party, a public park without a struggle, without embarrassment, without pain. You have no cure for me. Your scientists don’t have the resources and I relish their desperation. Your neighbors are happier to pretend that I don’t exist, of course, until it’s their child. I am autism. I have no interest in right or wrong. I derive great pleasure out of your loneliness. I will fight to take away your hope. I will plot to rob you of your children and your dreams. I will make sure that every day you wake up, you will cry, wondering, “Who will take care of my child after I die?” And the truth is, I’m still winning. And you’re scared. And you should be. I am autism. You ignored me. That was a mistake.” A full transcript of the PSA is provided here by the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.After Autism Speaks released its “I Am Autism” PSA in 2009, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network held protests across the U.S., in Columbus, Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon that received widespread local press coverage. Additionally, over 60 national and regional disability organizations – including the Arc of the United States, TASH, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and the National Council on Independent Living – signed a joint letter urging donors to rescind their support for the organization.In 2014, Autism Speaks released a documentary titled, “Sounding the Alarm: Battling the Autism Epidemic.” In this film, Lori Unumb, who was Autism Speaks Vice President of State Government Affairs, calls autism an “unforeseen and unprovoked medical disaster,” and said there is a “huge autism tsunami that is going to hit the state budgets of all of our states if they don’t ensure that the kids are getting treatment.” Even just a few years ago, Autism Speaks has compared autism to natural disasters and diseases, as well as suggesting that autistic people are a huge financial burden on society.Ten years later after the release of the “I am Autism” PSA, Billy Mann released an apology on his Facebook page to the autistic community on February 13th, but recently deleted the post due to backlash from the autistic community for having no intention to change his language, action, and behaviors to reflect he was sorry, as well as defending Autism Speaks for their actions rather than condemning them and owning up to his own and the organization’s faults. Screenshots of the original post have been retrieved here, and there is an analysis/rebuttal of the apology here by autistic activist, Amanda Seigler. Billy Mann continues to wear the blue puzzle piece with pride, despite the symbol being considered a hate symbol in the autistic community, and continues to work for Autism Speaks today.Autism Speaks continues to characterize autism as undesirable and something that should be eradicated and cured. A 2019 issue of Diversibility Magazine has a PSA by Autism Speaks pathologizing lack of eye contact to promote early screenings of autism. It has pictures of autistic people not looking straight at the camera with the caption, “One time is a bad photo. Many times is a sign.” This Autism Speaks ad in the magazine is right next to an article of the value of hiring autistic people, and ads like this serve to further stigmatize autistic people and make it harder for us to be employed.