Response to RFK Jr.’s Ableist Comments on Autism

Autism is Beautiful and RFK Jr is an ableist jerk

As an autistic therapist who owns and operates a thriving private practice staffed by other autistic therapists, I find Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent remarks about autism not only offensive but profoundly dangerous.

To claim that autistic people “will never pay taxes,” “never hold a job,” “never write a poem,” “never play baseball,” or “never go out on a date” is not only false — it is deeply ableist. It reduces autistic lives to a deficit narrative that denies our humanity, our value, and our vast contributions to the world.

At my practice, autistic clinicians work every day to support others, improve mental health outcomes, and make our communities stronger. We pay taxes, we advocate for equity, we create art, we fall in love, we write poetry, and we change lives. Autistic people exist across all professions, all levels of education, and all facets of society. We are poets, scientists, teachers, parents, therapists, athletes, engineers, and activists. Many of us do need support — but support should be about empowering autistic lives, not erasing them.

Statements like RFK Jr.’s perpetuate harmful stereotypes that lead directly to discrimination, exclusion, underemployment, and even violence against autistic people. By portraying us as burdens rather than as people with inherent worth and dignity, he fuels stigma at a time when we desperately need understanding, acceptance, and inclusion.

Autism does not “destroy families.” What damages families — and autistic lives — is a society that fails to accommodate, value, and respect neurodivergent ways of being. It is this ableism, not autism itself, that causes so much suffering. What destroys families — and lives — is stigma. It is the crushing weight of a society that sees autistic people not as full human beings, but as burdens to be mourned. The suffering that exists around autism is not inevitable; it is manufactured by exclusion, by a refusal to understand, by voices like RFK Jr.’s that promote fear instead of acceptance.

The future must be one where autistic people are not pitied, pathologized, or dehumanized — but instead celebrated, supported, and empowered to thrive in a world that recognizes the full richness of neurodiversity.

We are not tragedies. We are not “lost children.” We are here. We are living full lives. And we are not going anywhere.

To the autistic people who heard those hateful words and felt unseen:

You are not alone. You are not broken. You are powerful beyond measure.

And there are so many of us standing with you — autistic and proud.