An autistic person is not the same as an autistic advocate. If you're choosing to be an advocate, you are actively working for bettering conditions for autistic people. An autistic person is not always an autistic advocate.
They've not interested their hyperfocus into this cause, and that is okay. Advocacy is a choice. Being autistic isn't. Our goal as advocates is to represent autistic people's needs by studying, evaluating, listening to all autistics, and then finding ways to influence change.
But we can not ask all autistic people to make the choice to be advocates. We shouldn't. We advocates strive to give our people the AUTONOMY to choose their paths unobstructed and to flourish the way they carve out without our interference.
We are here if they need us, when they need us, but it would be an aggressive intrusion to interfere before that. All autistic people need to know is that we have their back in the ways that we can. Our job is not to correct them in how to properly be autistic.
Our job is to answer their questions without judgement, and not to answer questions they didn't ask. We don't police our own and we don't exploit autistic success for any agenda.
Remember that correcting someone's behavior feels to them like correcting their character-- and how absolutely devastating it is when you most need your NeuroTribe but they don't come through.
If you're autistic and see an autistic person struggling, if sharks are circling an autistic person, you don't need to agree with them to throw them a lifeline. You just need to fucking throw them a lifeline and not join the sharks.
Don't exploit an individual autistic success or failure by using it as a way to advance a cause. You only need to offer support at the individual level. Advocacy at the systemic level. Shine your light bright enough that sailors don't need to talk to you to avoid danger.
Make your harbors safe enough for them to dock and rest and regroup. Believe in their goodness. Offer respite, not scorn or disappointment. Put your message in places they can find it on their own, read or view or listen when they're ready. Make yourself available to talk to them
You can defend a PERSON without defending their beliefs or even knowing them. Advocacy is not a platform to express your disappointment in individuals.
If someone's cause and purpose is billed as autistic/autism advocacy, and they're actively working against autistics-- have at it. You don't need to support autistics who spend their days pushing autistics' heads under water. Drive the sharks out of autistic paths.
Be a lighthouse. Be a harbor. Be a haven. Be a well-armoured life raft. Be shark repellent. Be a mentor. Be there when you're needed. Be PROUD of autistics-- and not just the ones who find a way onto the global stage.
Be proud of all the ones still being bullied in classrooms for daring to challenge the comforts of the dangerous status quo. Make their literal and metaphorical soil habitable. Tear holes in the fabric of reality for them if that reality blocks their access to the Sunlight.
@threadreaderapp unroll
