I’m up thinking about #ColorTheSpectrum (the media event with non-autistic celebrities, scheduled for April 30th, to raise money for an organization called Next For Autism that’s funding research to “prevent” autism).

And I keep wondering why so many people think this is okay.

Not a single member of NFA’s team is autistic. Not one of them.

And the CEO, Gillian Leek, also founded The Center for Autism and The Developing Brain.

Donations to NFA will go to that center. So what’s in the mission statement?

Ah, I see. Eugenics.

The most heartbreaking thing about this is that none of the celebrities participating in #ColorTheSpectrum are autistic, and none of the people who run NFA are autistic either.

How much longer do we have to scream, “Nothing about us without us!!” before people listen?

John Oliver, Jack Black, Mark Hamill, Stephen Colbert, and so many others are joining this event.

A lot of people have since withdrawn, including Colleen Ballinger and Rhett & Link. I really appreciate their willingness to listen.

But too many people are still not listening.

I have to say, finding out that John Oliver is participating was a gut punch to me.

I respect him. I admire his work.

And it makes me so, so sad that he’s joining in on this. I don’t doubt that he (or any of the others) have good intentions.

But that’s not an excuse.

The more involved I am in the autistic community, the more it shocks me how the majority of the public (including prominent figures) are still so unaware that it’s not okay to host events like this.

Autistic people are not your pity projects. We can advocate for ourselves.

Not all of us have the communication skills or access to AAC that we would need to be traditional “advocates.”

But many of us do. Including nonspeakers.

You don’t listen to what they say, either. So would it even matter if all of us could communicate in ways you understand?

It often feels like I’m shouting into a void.

When is neurotypical society going to wake up and realize that they’ve been going about this the wrong way?

When will they realize that we’ve been here all along, just waiting for them to listen to our words?

When will the day come, when instead of hosting a giant celebrity get-together to raise money to prevent autistic people from existing...

People with power and influence use their platforms to host & amplify autistic people ourselves?

Because we’re right here in front of you.