I am an Autistic individual, and this is not what Autism Awareness Month should be about. This is a time for others to show support and learn, and for autistic individuals, it’s a month in which we teach the world who we truly are. However, this year, a controversial announcement from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has shifted the focus in the wrong direction. In launching a national investigation dedicated to finding the “cause” of autism, Kennedy isn’t offering hope; he is a man focused solely on outdated myths and ideals that autistic people are a problem to be solved. That’s not awareness. That’s harm.
Kennedy has a long history of spreading harmful statements about autism, from blaming vaccines and environmental factors to parenting. He even declared, “This is a Holocaust; what this is doing to our country.” Kennedy has been debunked by experts repeatedly over the last two decades, but despite this, his rhetoric remains unchanged and very dangerous. With his recent rise to power as the new HSS secretary he is using his platform to launch a national investigation into finding the so-called “cause” of autism. This is an action made in ableist ideology as opposed to science. Kennedy is once again framing autism as a problem to be eliminated, seeking to “help” autistic people as if we are a problem to be solved, as opposed to human beings with our own identities. Kennedy does not see who we are outside of a singular label.
Photo by Michael Conroy
Kennedy acts as if autism is a problem to be fixed, a national tragedy. In 2015, he did apologize for his holocaust comment but went on to say moments later, “I employed the term during an impromptu speech as I struggled to find an expression to convey the catastrophic tragedy of autism which has now destroyed the lives of over 20 million children and shattered their families.” CBS News. We are not the result of a “catastrophic tragedy.” We are not broken and there is no need for us to be “cured.” He explicitly ignores that we are individuals, speaking only of the word and not the people.
Autism is built into the brain’s blueprint from early on, before birth. It is a polygenic disorder (NIH); there’s no single “autism gene” that could just be eliminated. What Kennedy suggests is that you’d have to rebuild the entire brain, and you would lose the person. It’s not a cure if you’re fundamentally changing a person’s memories, personality, and identity. Is that ethical? It’s not.
I am succeeding in life. I am a college honor society member and have made multiple Dean’s and President’s lists. This rhetoric from Kennedy does not reflect my reality. I am not a “tragedy”, and neither are countless others like me who are thriving. Autism doesn’t hold us back, and it hasn’t “shattered” our families. In fact, it has made the connections even more genuine. We have unique ways of processing the world, and that should not be seen as a deficit. When Kennedy and others like him claim we need to be “cured,” they ignore our voices and our lives. We are reduced to what small-minded people think of us, and that overlooks all that we are capable of.
Real awareness is inclusion, celebrating the strengths and experiences of individuals with autism. We need to leave the misconception that autism is a problem in the past. We can do this by educating others on the topic and why viewpoints like Kennedy’s are harmful. Autism is a part of who we are and it’s time society understands that. Kennedy’s views are bigoted, outdated, and rooted in ableism. This April it needs to be made known that we are not a problem to be solved.