Trigger warnings: ableism at the links, mentions of dangerous autism treatments/abuse/murder in article and at links.
So, remember Orycon and their autism panel, which surprised me, and the way they handled it, which disappointed me but wasn't exactly surprising? Well, they said they would cancel the autism panel that had no autistic people on it (a reasonable move- not as good as just getting an autistic person who knows about the issues they want to talk about, but reasonable) after offering up the son of one of the panelists as a token autistic (he's not an activist or an expert in the things they wanted to talk about.) The panel was originally planned to be about the diagnostics of autism (why are the rates going up, so far as I can understand.) It's easy to find an autistic who has an opinion on that. It's even fairly easy to find multiple autistics with differing opinions on it. You've got "they're just better at catching it" and "it's harder to be a hermit so you actually see us now" and "it's gotten more disabling because you lot suck at handling sensory issues, which means we're more obvious" and people who think it's various combinations of that and probably people who think it's related to higher reproductive success for people with the "broad autism phenotype" in the modern world than previously. There are a TON of theories. I think it's one of the "we've always been here and something changed so that now you're noticing" ones. It's really not hard to find an autistic with an opinion on that.
And... the event didn't stay properly cancelled. Two parents and the token son did show up in the room, which still referenced autism, and they had an "informal discussion of disability." Given that they were talking about MMR in other conversations, I'm betting they brought it up there, which means that is now blood on their hands. Future deaths of vaccine preventable diseases caused by not vaccinating and future abuse and fatalities caused by autism "treatments" based on the idea that the thimoserol in vaccines causes autism are now partially their responsibility too. Panels like this and the treatments that people who believe them are part of the reason so many of us are scared of parents, one of the things that this letter to Orycon about the incident noted. In fact, that letter includes links to some of the treatments used for autism, some of which even use the mercury argument, meaning that some of those treatments are among the ones Joyce Ward-Reynolds and G David Nordley are now partially responsible. If they want to clear themselves of that before they get more blood on their hands (it's been a few days, I assume someone's gotten one of the treatments or died of a vaccine-preventable disease by now, sadly) they need to state on a significantly larger scale than their informal panel that a link between autism and vaccines hasn't been found, even at the level of correlation, that these treatments are abusive and won't actually fix the problem, that they understand why making that kind of statement is dangerous. Otherwise, they might not reach everyone who was reached by the people they spoke to, and once parents are convinced of something, it's very hard to unconvince them. They also need to apologize for having the panel anyways if they want the "decent human beings" award, but that is secondary to "blood on their hands." This isn't OK, Orycon. This isn't OK by any stretch.
So, remember Orycon and their autism panel, which surprised me, and the way they handled it, which disappointed me but wasn't exactly surprising? Well, they said they would cancel the autism panel that had no autistic people on it (a reasonable move- not as good as just getting an autistic person who knows about the issues they want to talk about, but reasonable) after offering up the son of one of the panelists as a token autistic (he's not an activist or an expert in the things they wanted to talk about.) The panel was originally planned to be about the diagnostics of autism (why are the rates going up, so far as I can understand.) It's easy to find an autistic who has an opinion on that. It's even fairly easy to find multiple autistics with differing opinions on it. You've got "they're just better at catching it" and "it's harder to be a hermit so you actually see us now" and "it's gotten more disabling because you lot suck at handling sensory issues, which means we're more obvious" and people who think it's various combinations of that and probably people who think it's related to higher reproductive success for people with the "broad autism phenotype" in the modern world than previously. There are a TON of theories. I think it's one of the "we've always been here and something changed so that now you're noticing" ones. It's really not hard to find an autistic with an opinion on that.
And... the event didn't stay properly cancelled. Two parents and the token son did show up in the room, which still referenced autism, and they had an "informal discussion of disability." Given that they were talking about MMR in other conversations, I'm betting they brought it up there, which means that is now blood on their hands. Future deaths of vaccine preventable diseases caused by not vaccinating and future abuse and fatalities caused by autism "treatments" based on the idea that the thimoserol in vaccines causes autism are now partially their responsibility too. Panels like this and the treatments that people who believe them are part of the reason so many of us are scared of parents, one of the things that this letter to Orycon about the incident noted. In fact, that letter includes links to some of the treatments used for autism, some of which even use the mercury argument, meaning that some of those treatments are among the ones Joyce Ward-Reynolds and G David Nordley are now partially responsible. If they want to clear themselves of that before they get more blood on their hands (it's been a few days, I assume someone's gotten one of the treatments or died of a vaccine-preventable disease by now, sadly) they need to state on a significantly larger scale than their informal panel that a link between autism and vaccines hasn't been found, even at the level of correlation, that these treatments are abusive and won't actually fix the problem, that they understand why making that kind of statement is dangerous. Otherwise, they might not reach everyone who was reached by the people they spoke to, and once parents are convinced of something, it's very hard to unconvince them. They also need to apologize for having the panel anyways if they want the "decent human beings" award, but that is secondary to "blood on their hands." This isn't OK, Orycon. This isn't OK by any stretch.
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