Two forged members from Netflix’s hit relationship present “Love on the Spectrum” condemned Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s disrespectful feedback about individuals with autism earlier this month.
The fact present explores the private lives of a number of people with autism as they attempt to discover a life-long companion. It received two Primetime Emmys in 2024, for Excellent Casting for a Actuality Program and Excellent Directing for a Actuality Program.
“Autistic individuals have the identical hopes, goals, and sure, the identical awkward relationship moments as anybody else,” star Dani Bowman told NewsNation. She continued by saying “to generalize and say none of us can work, date or contribute to society, is totally false.”
Kennedy, who has been known to spread conspiracy theories about vaccines being linked to autism, has confronted backlash since earlier this month after labeling autism spectrum dysfunction as a “preventable disease.” He mentioned his division will discover the reason for what he known as an “epidemic” by September.
AP Photograph/J. Scott Applewhite
“These are youngsters who won’t ever pay taxes. They’ll by no means maintain a job. They’ll by no means play baseball. They’ll by no means write a poem. They’ll by no means exit on a date. A lot of them won’t ever use a rest room unassisted,” Kennedy mentioned.
Whereas Kennedy later mentioned he was solely referring to the roughly 25% of individuals with autism who do have extreme limitations, many advocates and people took his remarks as an offensive blanket statement.
The well being secretary’s plans reportedly embody collecting private medical records and making a registry to trace individuals identified with autism.
James B. Jones, who garnered a large fanbase after being featured on “Love on the Spectrum,” told People that Kennedy’s remarks “had been comprised of a place of utmost ignorance” and “one shouldn’t apply a blanket method or make generalized presumptions about individuals who have autism.”
“I’ve a everlasting 40-hour per week job with advantages, which I’ve held steadily since 2017 and am in no hazard of shedding. I can function a automobile with no points. I pay all of my very own bills,” Jones mentioned.
Jones posted a video earlier this week in response to Kennedy’s remarks, opening up about his expertise rising up at a time when society “didn’t have a really thorough understanding of autism or related types of neurodiversity.”
“Society has made nice progress previously 20 to 30 years, so we definitely don’t want to lose that progress,” Jones mentioned. “We don’t want to step backwards. We want to hold transferring ahead to the long run, reasonably than trying again to the previous.”
Regardless of Kennedy’s declare that individuals with autism will “by no means write a poem” or “go on a date,” Jones is relationship his girlfriend Shelley Wolfe and wrote a tune titled “Heavy Metal Queen.” Wolfe is featured within the music video.
“I’ve an enormous relationship with a lady whom I like very a lot, who loves me very a lot, and every little thing’s going nice for me in my life proper now,” James advised Individuals.
Bowman expressed her issues to NewsNation about Kennedy’s pledge to establish the reason for autism by September.
“Eager to treatment autism implies that our means of being is unsuitable, and it isn’t,” Bowman mentioned. “We don’t should be fastened. We should be supported. However the reply isn’t erasing autism, it’s constructing a extra inclusive world for all of us.”
