Well Said!

by Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Australia Why is the anti-vaxxer US Health Secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jnr, conducting a massive research and testing effort to find the causes of Autism before September? And why is Donald Trump targeting trans people, immigrants and DEI hires? Let’s do our own research and testing effort, and we are sure to get an answer, well before RFK publishes his anti-Autistic drivel in September.   Brown “genes”, “Black jobs” In early October 2024, Donald Trump “questioned immigrants’ faulty genes, saying without support that ‘ Many of them murdered far more than one person , and they are now happily living in the United States. You know, now a murderer, I believe this, it’s in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.’ “ 1 This came only a month after Trump made the baseless claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating people’s pets. He also claimed, in June last year, that immigrants were taking “Black...

  by Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Australia As the Autism rights movement evolves, people are exploring the impact of Autistic masking.  Autistic masking is often described as hiding behaviours, personal tastes or interests that might "out" us as Autistics, or copying other people's behaviours, personal tastes or interests in order to "pass" as neurotypical. Masking is often linked to suicidality or mental ill health and vigorously opposed by Autism rights advocates. I often hear people talking about heavy masking and the impact this has had on their lives - people becoming exhausted from the effort of masking and not knowing who they are beyond the mask.  As an Autistic, I have never been a heavy masker, and I think this is because I grew up in a proudly multicultural household. At the time of writing, there has never been any research into the needs or experiences of Autistic adults from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds. Thi...

By Helen Said, Autistic Advocate, Melbourne Australia I first met the remarkable Ali France at a Labor Enabled conference in Queensland in 2019. As someone from the western suburbs of Melbourne, what struck me was that her name is pronounced Ay-Lee (rhymes with Hailey, not like the Muslim Ali families that live around here) and France is pronounced the way the Queen would have said it. As an Autistic who gets patterns stuck in my head and doesn’t listen to radio or watch TV, this has been added to my social scripting, but I won’t go into that. For me, Ali’s disability is entirely more predictable. Disability is a part of life. Since we all hope to live a long life, we should inevitably expect disability sooner or later. We would all hope disability comes later rather than sooner, but that is not to be for everyone. For many of us, we experience childhood, adulthood, disability then death, but for others, disability is inserted into the equation a lot earlier and becomes part of o...

  By Helen Said, long time Autistic activist Autistics and our allies have a powerful voice and the May 3 rd 2025 federal election is a good time to use it. We need a government committed to fairness and equality, saving the environment and reducing the cost of living.   Who has to vote? If you are over 18, check your enrolment details on the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) website. 1 Enrolment closed on April 7 th , so If your name is not there you won’t be able to vote at this election. Make sure you enrol to vote 2 soon so you can get to vote next time around. If you have difficulty with transport or access to polling booths, or with the sensory or social aspects of attending a polling booth, you have the right to apply for a postal vote, as disability is an acceptable reason for not voting in person. You can also apply for a postal vote if you are travelling or working on election day. Apply for a postal vote as soon as possible to make sure you don’t miss out. In...

By Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Australia   Autistics and our allies have a powerful voice and this is the time to use it. For Autism rights, let’s keep Peter Dutton’s conservative, anti-diversity hire, pro-nuclear Liberal Party out of government.  It’s vitally important that Australia does not go down the path of the United States at our upcoming federal election in May.   We need a government committed to equity, the environment and reducing the cost of living. We, the 99% who are not billionaires, can get that government by either   a)        following the Australian Labor Party how to vote card on both ballot papers - the easiest way to vote - or   b)       Voting 1 for a progressive small party / independent (eg Greens, Socialists, Teals) and Voting 2 for Labor, numbering every square on the green ballot paper.   If you choose your own voting order on the green ballot pap...