Image: rainbow-y background with the text “Accept me. Don’t be aware of me.”

I don’t need your awareness. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who isn’t aware of autism. I don’t need your sugar-coated language. I don’t need you to tell me how autism has touched you. I don’t need you to light it up blue – rather, I need you to not.

I don’t need your awareness. I don’t need you to tell me how hard it is to be autistic. I don’t need you to tell me what it’s like to raise a child who is autistic. I don’t need you to tell me how justified a parent was to murder their child.

I don’t need your awareness. I don’t need you to hold up puzzle pieces. I don’t need you to shout out “but isn’t all awareness good?” But when it’s a company that actually advocates for my death, no, no it isn’t. When it is justifying the murder of my autistic friendly, no, no it isn’t.

What I need is your acceptance. To not turn your head or whisper when I stim in public. To accept that I cannot make eye contact with you. To accept that I script and that it’s the way I’m programmed.

What I need is your acceptance. To know that sometimes I flap my hands. Sometimes I carry a stuffed animal with me, despite being 28. That I script and repeat things and flap and flail and stim.

What I need is your acceptance. To not push me to do things I cannot. To know that it isn’t laziness, it isn’t that I don’t want to do the thing, it’s that I cannot do the thing.

I don’t need your awareness. I need your acceptance. There’s a difference.

Accept us as we are.

Don’t force us to change.

Don’t shove us into your NT boxes.

Love us.

Accept us.

And stop being aware of us.