Hey Guys!

I have started the ETA Log, a new series where I let y’all in on my personal and creative progressions.

Not long after starting to talk about my process and my goals, I realized that some of you haven’t been told some key facts about me as a person. I’ve decided to take a short break from The ETA Log so I can share one of the most integral key facts about me today, and more over the next several days. Integral fact number 1:

I am Autistic.

There’s a lot of misunderstanding, misinformation and communicative negligence in the global conversation about what I can “The Autistic Experience.” I use that in place of the word “autism.” Why? because being Autistic is not a condition that affects an otherwise “normal” person and keeps them from being normal. Being Autistic is its own type of normal.

As I’m typing this, I remember responding to a group on Facebook that was curious about Autistic people and our experience last year (This year is 2023 for y’all reading in the future!). I really liked how I phrased my experience to those people, and so now I will paste their question and my response into this post. The paragraphs are longer, look at the bold parts as your guide. 😊❤️

They said something to the effect of: Why is it so taboo to consider the potential causes of autism? Why must we merely accept it as a society?

This was my response to them:

Hello. ❤️

Being autistic is a neurotype. It is a type of brain wiring that has existed in people for as long as there have been people. Autism is just the name we have given it in recent centuries.

I am an autistic man, and it’s like, nothing “causes” my neurology to function how it does, like you don’t cause breathing, breathing just happens.

We don’t need to be cured of being how we are, because being autistic is not inherently disabling. It only appears as being a disability because of society’s gross negligence in trying to accommodate people who are wired differently, ya know? For instance, I’m hypersensitive, so loud cars with blaring horns in a crowded city are very overwhelming to me. If a quieter way of communicating on the road were developed, I wouldn’t be so distressed. That’s just one example of many, but I hope it starts to get the point across. ❤️

Being autistic is also not just a childhood thing, or something one can grow out of. I am in my 20s, and I am no less autistic than I was when I was diagnosed as a kid.

There’s a lot of stuff I could share here, but I’m actually gonna try to write blog posts about it so they can reach more people and live forever online. 😊❤️ (This is one of those Blog Posts!)

Not all autistic people are the same, either. Some, like me, can speak. Some can’t, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t communicate with people. Sometimes I shut down and stop speaking (this is known as Selective Mutism) because I’m overwhelmed, and speaking takes a lot of mental and emotional energy, all while I’m trying to cope in a world that wasn’t built with people like me in mind. Not because something is inherently wrong with me. ❤️

Society only tends to look at us based on what we are expected to do, but can’t do. This is pretty shortsighted because there are a lot of things we can do that others can, and also things that most others can’t do! It’s a little polarizing to infantilize autistic people and make them into poster children of achievement in the name of inspiration porn.

This month is called Autism Awareness Month (It was April of 2022), but I am here to share that we need more than your awareness — we need your acceptance. Acceptance of us just as we are, and inclusion of our needs into the fabric of society.

My parents didn’t do anything wrong to make me and my brain function how it normally does and is designed to. The only mistake they ever made was thinking that they had to make me “normal” in order to “fit in.” They are unlearning that more and more every day, and it’s beautiful to see. 😄❤️

I want to share this because far too often, so-called experts talk about autistic people as if they have some level of insight greater than that of someone whose brain is actually wired this way. That’s really damaging to people’s perception of autistic people, and our own perspectives on being autistic. I speak up so as to change that. No one deserves to be painted as defective or ostracized by people who don’t understand.

So, I want people to understand.

Thank you for reading, and Happy Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month! 😄❤️

Hope everyone has a great day!

All love,

Evan

Un-Quote.

~~~

One more thing…

Autism Speaks is not an organization to trust (Comment below this post and let me know if y’all would like me to write a post about Autism Speaks. Just add your email, and any other questions this post may have brought up for you, and I’ll get the message. 😊)

There is one organization I’m comfortable aligning myself with on Autistic matters called the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (or ASAN, for short). If this post really got you interested and thinking, I invite you to check out their website. They’ve got plenty of good stuff on there and most importantly, it’s a site where we as Autistic people are telling our own stories, not having someone tell a messed-up version of our stories!

ASAN