“This turbulent week has shown that the administration has lost the trust of the entire autism community. HHS’ walk-back is a success for our advocacy; it shows that our community has power, and that it is vital to speak up when potential threats emerge."
I think it needs to become common knowledge that "inability to read social cues" can show up as overcompensating.
You don't know how much misbehaviour is allowed, so you become the perfect child who never tests rules.
You don't know if someone is irritated with you, so you'll be extra generous and self-effacing.
You don't know how much is expected of you at work so you'll kill yourself in a minimum-wage job and not notice that nobody else is working like this.
"Hardworking and quiet" should be as much of an autism red flag as "ignores rules and doesn't know when to stop talking". Or why don't we just start using words to communicate so i can stop tracking everybody's eyebrow twitches, that would be great.
In light of the things RFK said about autistic people recently, I feel like it's important to remember where the term "Asperger's Syndrome" came from.
It was the nazi's way of sorting between "useful" autistic people that could still work for them, and "unwanted" autistic people that would be sent to the camps. We kept using the term until very recently to my memory, and I'm not one to speculate but I wouldn't be surprised if the distinction comes back into popularity in the near future. Or even becomes legally recognized.
This isn't about whether or not you personally paid your taxes or wrote a poem. People have value and a right to exist regardless of their ability to do those things, and the second we forget about that and say "oh but I'm not the kind of autistic person he's talking about, I'm useful" we've fallen directly back into the line of thinking they had in literal nazi germany.
Okay, so I try hard to cover global queer history, and this isn't marking a stop to that, but I am aware that most of my audience is American, and I want to address them very directly right now.
Google Removed Pride Month From Its Calendar App, and Stonewall National Monument's "LGBTQ" status was changed to "LGB" on the government website. This is the beginning of the erasure of queer history, not the end. I don't know what the future of the United States looks like, as someone who studies queer history and has done so for many years, I want to share some tools with you.
Now is a good time to prioritize local queer history, Making Gay History is a great project, so is the Digital Transgender Archive, but also check your city and see what resources there are.
Read and buy books about queer history. I have an affiliate list with some of the books I personally recommend.
If you use Google Calendar, repopulate that resource with so much queer history with a free queer history calendar plug-in, it has names from queer history that you can also learn more about for free when they come up. As the author of these articles, feel free to save them, print them off, whatever makes them freely accessible as suppression get's worse.
Use your local library. Email the board about book bans, request banned books, request queer books, and make your voice heard.
Make queer art. Share queer art. Protect queer art. Here is some public-domain queer art to use as you wish.
Keep up with queer news, THEM is a great resource.
All of these tools are currently freely accessible with an internet connection. Queer history is a community responsibility, do your part.
What is old is new again.
I wish all these bastards a very Trial at the Hague.
early AT anniversary art
I started using Head and Shoulders ten years ago for itchy scalp and dandruff, and then for ten years I have not had itchy scalp and dandruff, so I thought “why do I still buy shampoo to combat itchy scalp and dandruff when I do not have itchy scalp and dandruff,” so I stopped buying the shampoo for itchy scalp and dandruff and can you guess I have now? Can you predict what currently afflicts me? It’s alright if you can’t because apparently I fuckin couldn’t either
The crux of the anti trans movement is a war on bodily autonomy. They don't want you to have any agency over what you look like, how you dress, who you date, whether to have kids, etc.
They want total control over you. Not just trans people. Not just queer people. You. Everyone.
Trans people are just a scapegoat. They want total control over everyone's self expression. They want the right to mold you into their perfect little cog in their dehumanizing machine.
Happy Trans Day of Visibility. Our rights are your rights. Our destruction is your destruction.
finished portrait commission for the lovely @starfleet-captain 🧡🌿