BBC reporting of autism (was “Southport”)

This reporting in the media completely demonises our entire autistic community when we already experience huge amounts of prejudice and marginalisation anyway, I don’t how to stop reporting like this without becoming heavily involved in advocacy which could be incredibly draining and upsetting.

Just thinking there are numerous autistic led organisations such as Autistic Inclusive Meets that focus a lot of their efforts on campaigning about how our community is portrayed in the media. Currently this organisation I mention is heavily involved in the case of Megan Docherty so may not be able to help but it’s worth asking. What do you think about this idea?

Also another idea might be to start a petition about how our autistic community is portrayed by news outlets.

Thanks for raising this point, it has been widely discussed on other autistic led social media platforms.

Hopefully, other news will soon replace this story or current focus but this could have long lasting effects on how safe we feel (including myself) disclosing our autistic identity and ultimately demonstrating pride in our neurotype, not to mention a potential increase in hate crimes.

It makes me so angry and frustrated because if the media reported about any other marginalised identity such as being gay for example there would be outrage not just from queer communities but the public in general but apparently for some reason it’s ok to weaponise autistic identities.

This reporting in the media completely demonises our entire autistic community when we already experience huge amounts of prejudice and marginalisation anyway, I don’t how to stop reporting like this without becoming heavily involved in advocacy which could be incredibly draining and upsetting.

Just thinking there are numerous autistic led organisations such as Autistic Inclusive Meets that focus a lot of their efforts on campaigning about how our community is portrayed in the media. Currently this organisation I mention is heavily involved in the case of Megan Docherty so may not be able to help but it’s worth asking. What do you think about this idea?

Also another idea might be to start a petition about how our autistic community is portrayed by news outlets.

Thanks for raising this point, it has been widely discussed on other autistic led social media platforms.

Hopefully, other news will soon replace this story or current focus but this could have long lasting effects on how safe we feel (including myself) disclosing our autistic identity and ultimately demonstrating pride in our neurotype, not to mention a potential increase in hate crimes.

It makes me so angry and frustrated because if the media reported about any other marginalised identity such as being gay for example there would be outrage not just from queer communities but the public in general but apparently for some reason it’s ok to weaponise autistic identities.