I often think on how research, medicine, and psychiatry approach and ‘treat’ autistic people today in the exact same manner they approached and ‘treated’ homosexuality until 1972.
Then, thanks to #LGBTQ advocates, homosexuality was suddenly ‘cured’ by @APAPsychiatric overnight.
Where are the endless research papers about the genetics and epigenetics of gay people?
Where are the warnings of “risk factors” for lesbians?
Where’s the pleading for “early intervention” for bisexuals?
What about environmental factors?!?!
We probably know less about gay people now than autistic people. But, we know enough not to funnel everything about LGBTQ people through a pathological frame.
All the questions we ask about autism are still there (and largely unanswered) for LGBTQ people.
Yet, we seem OBSESSED with the question of “why” when it comes to autistic people, but not with LGBTQ people.
The more we came to know and appreciate LGBTQ people, the less we focused on “why”.
We USED to constantly ask “why” when it came to LGBTQ people.
We asked “why” when we needed to explain them away. We asked “why” when we thought them a broken version of a straight norm.
Once we started to see LGBTQ people as normal, “why” became a less urgent question to ask.
That’s not to say “why” is a question we should stop asking when it comes to autism. It’s just that there are more urgent questions to ask.
Constantly focusing on “why” actually prevents us from understanding autism and autistic people more deeply.
Imagine if research and medicine (and all other approaches) paused to center autistic people, to ask “who are you?”
Autistic people have so, so many answers to the greatest ‘mysteries’ of autism. It’s that researchers and others are asking the wrong questions.
I’m autistic and gay. I’ll probably never know why I’m gay. At this point, I don’t care if I ever know why I’m autistic.
I’m here. I’m queer. I’m flappy. Get used to it.
It’s time for a better approach. Autistic people, our parents & those who love us, deserve more than this.
PS - And stop just asking “why” when it comes to other disabled populations as well. They too would be better served by asking better questions.
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