Why supporters of Autism Speaks are complicit in the harm they inflict on the autistic community

While most consumers stroll through supermarket aisles meticulously, searching for the reddest apple or the perfect pear, a different kind of search takes place nearby.

When someone asks American University junior Frankie Orrico if she had a good weekend, her answer is a bit complicated.

The Mennonite community in the United States hasn’t been known to line up by the hundreds outside polling stations, hold picket signs protesting unjust laws or advocate for a certain candidate.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor once told the New York Times that she was always looking over her shoulder, wondering if she measured up.

Rugby is an intensely physical sport. With 80 minutes of nonstop play and only a 10 minute halftime, it is more punishingly cardiovascular than football, with all of the contact and none of the padding.

Over three billion people have access to the Internet, and those who reside within 1.5 miles of your location can get 200 characters of unregulated, entirely anonymous social publication with just the click of a “free download” button. 

“We were naïve,” admitted Yik Yak co-founder Brooks Buffington in a statement following the application’s mandatory prohibition in Chicago.

A lot of the general public’s knowledge of the concept of BDSM is limited to the book 50 Shades of Gray, Rihanna’s hit song “S&M” and perhaps a few scenes from the film “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Other than that, the activities of the BDSM community tend to remain a mystery and many people who participate in these activities like to keep it under wraps out of fear that people might judge them.