Well Said!

  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...

  Elon Musk is not an Autistic role model By Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Australia I was initially excited when I heard that Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, had an Aspergers diagnosis. I thought that, by adding his name to the growing list of celebrities and innovators on the Autism Spectrum, we would all be a step closer to gaining Autism acceptance. Of course, I had misgivings about billionaires hogging the world’s wealth in the face of growing poverty, and I didn’t approve of huge resources being poured into Mars missions, but it occurred to me that, if there had to be a billionaire class, they might as well be diverse, with an Autistic amongst them. Since the 2024 US election campaign, my admiration for Musk has plummeted faster than Space X Starship hurtled into the Indian Ocean. Elon Musk has shown an absolute contempt for the poor and disadvantaged, both in the United States and abroad. This includes Musk’s attempts to shut down USaid (United States Agency...

By Helen Said, diversity and equity advocate, Melbourne Australia   I am a proud older generation activist who embraced 1970s feminism. As a young woman, I did not fit the stereotypes – I excelled in the “unfeminine” field of mathematics, I enjoyed political discussion, I did not want to become financially dependent upon a man and I avoided uncomfortable, sexist fashions. Feminism allowed me to be more fully myself.   It is disappointing to me that some older feminists would prefer not to allow transgender and non-binary people to be more fully themselves. Some feminists have been labelled Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) because they insist on enforcing the male-female binary onto the entire population. Trans and non-binary people disrupt their particular feminist doctrine. I think we have to embrace an evolving concept of feminism that can make room for more diversity.   Gender non-conforming women in sports Trans women, intersex women and wome...

  By Helen Said, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Autistic Advocate Advocacy has been part of my story for a very long time. It started with Dad's multicultural involvements and the influence he had on my young life, and grew when I attended university and joined the socialist movement. By the time I was diagnosed Autistic, I was 55 years old and I had already been involved in a string of community movements and campaigns, as well as my daughter's early intervention. For me, it was natural to delve into Autism advocacy, where there was clearly a need for more strong and diverse voices. I was born at a very stressful time for my family. They were then refugees from Egypt's 1956 Suez Canal War, living in London.  Dad was a Greek-Maltese British Subject and, as such, his extended family's assets had been frozen during the hostilities between Britain and Egypt. Eventually hostilities thawed and the two counties started negotiating. As Dad was the only man on his...