disease-danger-darkness-silence:
Theoretically speaking, it’s not. Tracking the genetic reasons for autism’s existence could, in theory, lead to better treatments for sensory overstimulation or provide autistic people with some much-needed answers to questions. It could help understand the different flavors of autism and why some people are nonverbal versus verbal; it could help us understand why anxiety is so prevalent within the autistic community but that some people don’t develop it. Theoretically it could improve the lives of autistic people and help us manage our condition.
Theoretically.
The problem is that Google paired up with Autism Speaks for this project. Autism Speaks is an organization that, historically, has been pretty pro-eugenics. (They’re also a terrible organization; google “Autism Speaks controversy” if you want to find out more, or just visit the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network’s website.)
I don’t want Autism Speaks near anything resembling genetic research, because of aforementioned pro-eugenics policies. I also really don’t want Google, a pretty powerful company with a lot of far-reaching influence, promoting Autism Speaks’ terrible message (that autistic people are a tragedy and not actual people with actual lives that aren’t, in fact, tragedies).
Do the genetics behind autism and other neuroatypical conditions need to be studied to benefit the lives of people with those conditions? Absolutely.
Do they need to be studied to eliminate autism because it’s genetically inferior and a huge burden to everyone? Absolutely not. Intent means a lot in this context, because Autism Speaks wants to eliminate people like me from the world (for the record, I’d like medication to help with some of the things that come along with autism, but I’m quite happy being autistic. For me it’s like having blue eyes, or being good at writing, or being short: it’s an integral part of the person I am and to take it away would completely change me into…someone else). That’s why they’re so big on the genetics research: not to actually help people with autism, but to get rid of them.
As usual, I fully understand the point of view of people with autism who would take a cure in a minute. I get it. It’s burdensome, at times, painful at others, and makes you a pariah within a neurotypical society. I get it.
But this isn’t the way to go. The search for a means to lessen suffering doesn’t mean you should also search for a way to eliminate an entire subsection of society. A lot of the things and conveniences we use on a day-to-day basis exist because of people with autism and other types of neuroatypicality. Autistic people bring a different point of view to the table, not necessarily a better one, but different enough that at times our existence isn’t just a fact but an asset.
By waging a eugenics war against us, Autism Speaks is treating us as the undesirable element in society.
As a writer, as an activist, as a spouse and step-parent and sibling and child and friend„ as a stagehand who brings joy to people’s lives, as an artist who inspires others through their work, I’m here to say that I’m not fucking undesirable, I am a human being, and I and everyone like me deserves better than this.