An Angry Aspie’s Letter to PEOPLE Magazine

On the eve of my fourth ever driving learner’s permit exam–which I passed, thank God–I was scrolling through my Twitter feed when I came across a tweet by @AskAsperboy that reads, “What is this about @people and the Wrights (even though they’re clearly wrong about #autism)? #BoycottAutismSpeaks?” @AskCisco replied, “@AskAsperboy It’s because @people published some article calling them ‘heroes’ for ‘crusading against #autism.'”

It turned out that PEOPLE published their interview with Autism Speaks founders Bob and Suzanne Wright on their Heroes Among Us panel entitled “Crusading Against Autism.” The synopsis read, “After their grandson [Christian] was diagnosed [with autism], Bob and Suzanne Wright launched a battle against the disorder.” Included was a picture of Autism Speaks’s founding couple, with Bob looking down on his now 13-year-old grandchild with what everybody on the spectrum deems a smile of deceit.

Because I was too focused on studying for my learner’s permit exam and passing it with flying colors the other night, I couldn’t write a letter to PEOPLE explaining my anger towards them for interviewing autism Nazi couple. Now, I have the chance to tell them on this very blog post.

Dear PEOPLE,

I’ve been a loyal reader of your magazine since I was 15, if not younger, and I’m extremely angry and disappointed that you published an article about the founding members of Autism Speaks in your Heroes Among Us section of your most recent issue. Are you out of your f***ing minds?! How could you betray your autistic readers, myself included because I have Asperger’s syndrome, by interviewing the very people whose main goal of their organization is to exclude everybody across the spectrum from mainstream society and bring them to their extinction with their Nazi-esque propaganda and their invasive therapies designed to make us less autistic? Autism Speaks claims to have helped autistic people and their families achieve a better quality of life, but in reality only 4% of their budget goes towards family services while 44% is invested in research into the causes of the disorder and how to best prevent it before it occurs. They even go so far as to call on every city in the world to light their buildings blue every year on April 2nd to get everybody feeling so damn sorry for us when they shouldn’t be. We’re alive and well, not missing and dead like Autism Speaks suggests. 

Autism is a gift God has given to people of His choosing to make life in this world more fascinating and interesting. Take Satoshi Tajiri, for example. If autism had not given him the love of entomology and video game design, he wouldn’t have begotten Pokémon, the most popular video game franchise in the industry. And Mozart–were it not for autism, he wouldn’t have become a renowned musician from a very young age. The world would be very boring if autism hadn’t touched the people I mentioned in this letter and others.

You guys should be so damn ashamed of yourselves for interviewing Bob and Suzanne Wright about their fight against autistics–not to mention their own grandson–and publishing it in your magazine, angering me and everyone else on the spectrum who read it. You need to understand that autistic people are the most intelligent people of our species, and we really have so much to offer in this world. Autism Speaks should be put out of business so that we may live in peace without fear of persecution for being ourselves.

Sincerely,

Cristina Alexander