I Am Autistic, and I Am Valid

Christy Walk has posted "I Am Autistic, and I Am Valid" on ChristyAutisticWalk.
Content warning for discussion of abuse and murder of autistic people.


This is my first Autistics Speaking Day essay. I wanted to do an essay last year, but my computer didn’t work and it had viruses on it, so I couldn’t use it. I also tried using my Nintendo 3DS but unfortunately, that didn’t work either, but I am thankful my computer is back up and running again, in time for Autistics Speaking Day.

Today is Autistics Speaking Day. I am glad that I’m participating in this day, after weeks of having no computer, which is now fixed. Autistics Speaking Day is important to me because as autistic people, we are awesome. We are the coolest people that you’ll ever meet. We are tender-hearted people who are valid and have feelings. We don’t lack empathy, and we have a sense of humor.


Unfortunately, people seem to want to silence our voices. It makes me sad that there is so much hatred for us. They don’t even realize that we are human beings. They dismiss our feelings, they torture us, tease us, mock and ridicule us. And they also abuse us and even worse, they murder us. They even make us drink chlorine to poison us. The way society treats us autistic people just hurts my heart. They even tell us to shut up whenever we autistic people speak. And they demonize us, thinking that we are dangers to society. But we autistic people will never be a danger to society. Sometimes we draw, paint, and do ceramics. Sometimes we build stuff out of cardboard boxes or cardstock paper.

I believe that people need to start caring about disabled people, and that includes us autistic people. People need to realize that we autistic people have value, and our feelings are valid. People need to start treating autistic people with love and acceptance and not try to hurt them with words, actions, MMS or chlorine. As autistic people, we need to be treated with unconditional love. We need to have our voices heard. Sadly, our voices aren’t heard and we are treated like we are a disease, burden, tragedy, a broken appliance, and treated like mosters too. But we are neither of these. I am not a curse. I am not a tragedy, a broken appliance, a monster or a burden. We are not these at all. We are never tragedies, burdens, monsters, curses, or broken appliances. We are human beings just like everybody else and we need you to love and understand us. Please don’t be quick to judge us, condemn us, mock, ridicule, torture, or spit on us. Because if you do, you take away our voices. You take away our dignity. You take away our rights to be ourselves.

I am very sad that there is a lot of ableism that goes on in this world. So many autistic people are getting locked in nursing homes and institution, and others are getting murdered or bullied by so many neurotypicals. It hurts my heart. I remember hearing about a young autistic man who was killed by police officers who wouldn’t understand him. I also remember hearing about Issy Stapleton being abused by her mother, Kelli Stapleton. The world says that we are violent and dangers to society, but that is completely false. We autistic people are good, kind people. We are NOT dangers to society at all. The world, unfortunately, wants us to believe that way.

We autistic people need people to listen to us when we speak to them. We need people to stop talking over us and instead talk to us. People ignore us and say that we’re better off dead. But we are not better off dead. We are still here whether people like it or not. People need to realize that we need to be loved and understood. It hurts my heart when people mistreat us constantly.

When I was on a Christian page and a Christian told me that I’m not autistic, I felt like they were talking over me. I felt like they made me feel unwanted, and unloved. Another Christian told me to claim my healing and that they were going to pray my autism off of me. These things they told me were hurtful. I hated what they said to me, and so I left the page and didn’t want to come back. I believe that churches need to start caring about us autistic people, too. And churches need to realize that we autistic people need to feel welcomed at church. I wish that more churches would do this, because we autistic people are human beings, not tragedies, burdens, broken appliances, monsters, demonic people, or people who are better off dead. Churches need to treat us with love and acceptance. Churches need to stop demonizing us and dehumanizing us. I’ve been bullied on the Christian page on Facebook which is talked about above.

To the people who have an autistic/disabled friend or relative, please listen to us. Please love and understand us. Please know that our feelings are valid and we are also valid. Please don’t judge, condemn, tease, torture, ridicule, mock or throw us in the garbage can. We are not trash, we are human beings just like you. We have a voice, and we have a story to tell. Please take the time to listen to our stories before you eliminate us and judge and condemn us. Because we are still here, we are not going away, especially when society tells us to go away. We are not wrong. We are the right fits.