I am running for the United States Congress in New York's 27th Congressional District, in a special election on April 28th. In addition to my platform of eco-socialism, anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, and anti-capitalism, I will also be calling for a Federal Ban on ALL conversion therapy on children. This includes both Gay Conversion Therapy, and ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) Conversion Therapy on Autistic children.
Both gay conversion therapy and ABA were substantially developed by the same quack, Ivar Lovaas. and have involved torturous physical, mental, emotional and psychological abuse and long term harm / shorten life expectancy. Conversion Therapy has been debunked. It is not "successful" as it is impossible to "convert" queer people or Autistic people. As the great Rogue once said, "There is no cure for who you are."
Strides have been made to ban gay conversion therapy on children, currently 19 states have made this practice illegal, including New York State in 2019, after several failed attempts to do so in Albany over the years. While this progress is helpful, it is not enough. There needs to be a Federal Ban on this tortuous practice immediately.
ABA conversion therapy on Autistic children, is still legal in ALL 50 states. This practice, and other abuse of Autistic children, is perpetuated in large part by organizations such as "Autism Speaks," which is nearly universally considered to be a hate group by Autistic Self Advocates.
The average life expectancy in the United States is 78. The average life expectancy for Autistic people however is 36. 36!!! That is less than HALF the average life expectancy. The average autistic life expectancy is 36, due to suicide, fillicide and "accidental" drowning (which, according to some Autistic self advocates, can also be suicide and/or fillicide).
In addition to a ban on all conversion therapy, I am also formally calling for the Southern Poverty Law Center to officially classify "Autism Speaks" as a hate group.
Classifying Autism Speaks a hate group is ESSENTIAL. Currently, "Autism Speaks" has been able to carefully craft a public image, despite outcry from Autistic Self Advocates, that leads the general public to belief that "Autism Speaks" is a group that benefits Autistic children, when in fact it causes irreparable damage on a massive level. The PR machine behind this hate group is so strong, that they have received the public support of (mostly well-intended) celebrities, musicians, and politicians. Their "Autism Speaks Walks" have attracted much support, and they have tricked "progressives" into holding large fundraisers for this hate group. One such example is the "LightUpTheBlues" benefit concert at the Los Angeles Greek Theatre, featuring Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Willie Nelson and Jack Black.
In development of this position, I spoke with Autistic self advocate led group, The March 4th Alliance. Who had the follow to add.
"Furthermore, they are building a genome bank of autistic children and their families to search for a cure, which means they're looking for the gene that causes autism so they can eliminate us. That's fucking eugenics. Autism Speaks is a fucking hate group. They continue to insist on using a hate symbol against autistic people as their logo. They continue to use person first language even though autistic people prefer, poll after poll, to be called autistic people. These are polls conducted on THEIR OWN SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS. They have only had one autistic person on their board and he left because of the eugenics culture. Most of their money goes toward ads and salaries but what's left funds pro-eugenics research in an attempt to eliminate us. Plus, they promote harmful therapy by the same dude who invented gay conversion therapy with the same disastrous effects: increased suicide rates and C-PTSD (and we're still autistic when we're done but we've been conditioned to mask ourselves to the detriment of our bodily autonomy and mental health). We don't need a cure. There is no cure for a genetic difference. The only cure is elimination. What we need is acceptance and accommodation. Most autistic people are relegated to lives of poverty due to employment and educational discrimination. It breaks my heart and wounds my soul to see so much money being put toward harming and eliminating autistic people while so many of us struggle just to survive and never see a dime or a bit of help from Autism $peaks"
Further reading:
https://nsadvocate.org/2018/07/11/treating-autism-as-a-problem-the-connection-between-gay-conversion-therapy-and-aba/
https://awnnetwork.org/is-autism-speaks-a-hate-group/
https://autisticadvocacy.org/
https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/study-identifies-predictors-early-death-among-autistic-people/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/caring-autism/201810/early-death-in-those-autism-spectrum-disorder
https://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/news/20160318/autism-early-deaths
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