TW: ableism, eugenics.

We are beyond disappointed to hear about @MarkRober's #ColorTheSpectrum fundraiser.

A thread.

If you’re not autistic, something you should know is that heaps of money that is fundraised on the premise of ‘bettering’ lives for autistic people ends up funnelled to organizations that don’t have autistic leadership and don’t have autistic people’s best interests at heart.

The org receiving funds from Rober’s campaign @NEXTforAUTISM is no exception. Beyond having no autistic leadership, they advocate therapy strategies that harm autistic people and a key part of their mandate is research towards the eugenicist idea of preventing autism.

We recommend following @NaoiseDolan @autisticats and @ADHDelaide to learn more. It’s beyond appalling. It is deeply harmful and upsetting.

We know that April can be an incredibly triggering month for autistic people. We are furious about how these stories of violent erasure keep coming. We need a change, and we’ve needed it for a long time.

Something we were already planning on doing this month was donating to @NeuroClastic
NeuroClastic is an extraordinary platform by and for autistic people. They tangibly make change, including in working towards ending practices that harm the autistic community.

To think that they survive on small donations doing this world-changing work while celebrities fundraise enormous amounts for ableist organizations..it’s so unfair & hampers progress to a world that is actually neuroinclusive, where autistic people are valued, safe and respected

We were planning on donating anonymously, but in light of the #ColortheSpectrum fundraiser, we decided to donate today and take the opportunity to encourage others to show their financial solidarity through the rest of April (and beyond).

If you’re allistic, we encourage you to amplify the critiques of the fundraiser and to donate to autistic-led organizations or send funds directly to one of many incredible autistic change-makers on social (Tip: search Twitter for #financethespectrum)

We also have a wonderful list of partners on our website who have kofi/venmo/cashapp links in their social bios.
If you are an autistic creator or advocate, please tag yourself in the comments!!