"Does Being Autism Make Me Bad?"

I had a post in the works about why autism acceptance is so important, but sometimes it takes me a while to get posts out.

In the meantime, this is something more people need to see.

This is a photo currently going viral on Facebook, a written exchange between a 7-year-old autistic girl named Cadence and her mother. (Click the link or the photo for a bigger size.)

{Transcription of image text...

Cadence: Does being autism make me bad?
Mother: What makes you wonder if being autism makes you bad?
Cadence: Grownups always say it's hard being mum or dad if your kid is autism and it said on the TV if your autism you hurt people. And kids who are autism have to be put in a gale [jail] to keep others safe or tied up.
Mother: Do you think I believe these things are true, or that I would say them?
Cadence: NO!
Mother: What do you believe?
Cadence: I don't like hurting people. I don't like being scard. I would be scard in a gail [jail] room. I was born autism but that doesn't mean I was born bad. Are you crying?
Mother: Yes. I have happy tears that you know what is true; and I have sad tears because there are lots of people who don't know what is true.}

I could have spent hours and thousands of words trying to explain why acceptance is so important and awareness is actively hurting autistic people and the community.

Nothing I could write would make the point as well as this does.

I just needed to pass this forward today.

I am Cadence