OPEN YOUR EYES TO AUTISM - London Rally
There was a protest march in London on Saturday. I am not talking about the tens of thousands who were protesting over the economic recession in advance of Wednesday’s G20 Summit in London. There was another march that day protesting about autism. I did not attend, but from the photos posted online it looks like a few hundred parents, children and their supporters turned up to march from the Embankment to a rally in Trafalgar Square.
The march was called by Open Your Eyes to Autism, “a parent’s initiative” that has strong links with The Autism File. This is a magazine founded by Polly and Jonathon Tommey to promote biological interventions for autism, especially dietary ones. They were the first parents in the UK to try secretin on their child. I once shared a platform with Jonathon Tommey at a conference for health care professionals. Lisa Blakemore-Brown was also there and spoke about the use of Munchausen’s by Proxy to discredit parents who insisted on biomedical treatments for their autistic children. I felt at the time that both had valid insights, but these were insufficient to support the weight of their arguments.
Still, it made for an interesting conference in which medical professionals, attending as part of their continuing professional development, were exposed to the alternative views promoted by Tommey and Blakemore-Brown alongside more orthodox speakers. My contribution was an early attempt to promote the idea that health care professionals can make a positive contribution to the support of autistic people and their families if they start out by accepting the autistic person instead of trying to cure them. You can read it here.
So I was interested to see that despite its biomedical, anti-vaccine sympathies the march on Saturday also welcomed representatives of the London Autistic Rights Movement, including Hub blogger Casdok who attended with her adult son and a placard that read “Acceptance Not Cure.”
This may be because the march seemed to offer something for everybody. Its flyer called for
Improving services for autistic children and adults.
Recognition of the endemic nature of autism worldwide.
Better educational services.
Valid Research to establish cause.
More support for autistic adults.
More help with the transition from child to adult:
Support for Dietary interventions on the NHS.
Recognition of the role of environmental triggers in ASDs.
And much more…
In this the march resembled its larger counterpart on the day. Both were coalitions who could agree upon some issues and disagree about others. The key questions yet to be answered are, “Should we try to build a coalition in which the points of agreement outweigh the points of disagreement? If the divide is too great can we at least maintain a constructive dialogue while pursuing our distinct agendas?” I am open to suggestions on both questions.
