Please sponsor my 5k swim coming up in April and help support Marie Curie Cancer Care, an organisation which provides home nursing care to people with terminal illnesses.

It’s not because I’ve internalized misogyny; it’s not because I don’t know I’m a “slave”, as Robin Morgan seems to believe. It isn’t even her vote to authorize the war in Iraq or her multiple votes to fund it (though these are huge negatives); I do realize that gender bias may have made these votes necessary (since it’s all too easy to portray a woman as weak). Of course, I’d still prefer a candidate who didn’t vote to support the war. (This wouldn’t be Obama, however, as he voted to fund the war despite the speech he gave before he was in the Senate.)

The major sticking point for me is her support for Autism Speaks. Autism Speaks is, of course, terribly misnamed, as the group actually silences autistics. Among its leadership is a woman who is perfectly happy to talk about her wish to kill herself and her autistic daughter, right in front of said daughter in a video produced by Autism Speaks that contains many other flaws. Autism Speaks also talks about autism prevention and “stamping out” autism.

My autism (diagnosed Aspergers) is part of who I am. I don’t want that part of me stamped out, no matter how other people react to it. I don’t want people like me to be prevented from coming into existence. That Clinton has chosen to support a group that supports these things indicated an attitude towards people like me that I see as threatening my survival– perhaps not in a literal sense but in the sense of preserving what it is that makes me who I am (if you can forgive the use of such an un-PoMo concept as the self).

When I’ve mentioned this issue, I’ve had neurotypicals tell me that I need to stop being concerned about my “pet issue” and look at the big picture. Maybe if she were perfect in every other way I could. However, self-preservation in an often hostile world comes first for good reason. (It’s also quite funny when I get this criticism from the same people who suggest that all women should vote for Senator Clinton.) I’ve also been given a list of legislation that Clinton has supported that provides funds for disabilities. I’m aware of these bills, but as positive as they are, they do not change the fact that she is happy to assist a group that thinks people like me should not exist. Nor is supporting funding to help those of us who “unfortunately” do inconsistent with believing we should not exist.

Would I vote for her if she dropped Autism Speaks? If she answered letters like this positively? I’d at least consider it; if she started talking about neurodiversity, then I definitely would. If people like me don’t insist on making this an issue, who else will?

Related posts:

1. About the Youth Vote
2. What Senator Craig Should Have Said
3. Autism Speaks Against Difference
4. What About Our Stories?
5. I Am Autism
6. Autistics Speak, But Will Autism Speaks Listen?
7. How Congress Votes
8. But, really, who cares about reproductive rights?
9. Anyone in Iowa Want to Give Me a Birthday Present?
10. Must the Brutal Always Reign?

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