I find no value trying to out people as fake autistics. It just creates room for allistics to gatekeep autism. If someone relates to others in autistic spaces and finds community there, I don’t much care whether they got some allistic professional’s permission first. Fakeclaiming creates a lot of bad habits that alienates more than just undisclosed autistics, such as that AutisricPride mod on reddit throwing DID peoole under the bus to appease a fakeclaiming subreddit that had been harassing the users of autistic subs.
Yeah, it’s annoying if someone pretends the autistic experience is just not liking eye contact, but it’s a spectrum and I don’t want to create the conditions for people to overstate their experiences just to be considered “autistic enough.” I would rather deal with some people exploring their identity and being mistaken about being autistic than risk some autistic kid being gatekept out.
I think the better way to frame this is that people with fewer support needs shouldn’t dominate autistic discourse so much. Shit like “autism isn’t a disability” leads such people to view autistics who obviously are very disabled as an obstacle; we can avoid such attitudes by applying some good 'ole intersectionality and being honest about privilege.
As annoying as it is that someone might claim a marginalized identity for clout, the amount of gatekeeping you have to do to prevent it is more harmful than the helpful.
I find no value trying to out people as fake autistics. It just creates room for allistics to gatekeep autism. If someone relates to others in autistic spaces and finds community there, I don’t much care whether they got some allistic professional’s permission first. Fakeclaiming creates a lot of bad habits that alienates more than just undisclosed autistics, such as that AutisricPride mod on reddit throwing DID peoole under the bus to appease a fakeclaiming subreddit that had been harassing the users of autistic subs.
Yeah, it’s annoying if someone pretends the autistic experience is just not liking eye contact, but it’s a spectrum and I don’t want to create the conditions for people to overstate their experiences just to be considered “autistic enough.” I would rather deal with some people exploring their identity and being mistaken about being autistic than risk some autistic kid being gatekept out.
I think the better way to frame this is that people with fewer support needs shouldn’t dominate autistic discourse so much. Shit like “autism isn’t a disability” leads such people to view autistics who obviously are very disabled as an obstacle; we can avoid such attitudes by applying some good 'ole intersectionality and being honest about privilege.
As annoying as it is that someone might claim a marginalized identity for clout, the amount of gatekeeping you have to do to prevent it is more harmful than the helpful.