Thomas Ledbetter
LightNews LightNews
banner
capledbetter.bsky.social
Thomas Ledbetter
@capledbetter.bsky.social
130 followers 110 following 48 posts
Autistic activist, advocate, researcher, critical optimist, and hopefully a friend. Views are my own. #ActuallyAutistic #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs

https://thomasgledbetter.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
capledbetter.bsky.social
This statement is one of the most vile things I have ever read. Everyone currently at the CDC should be ashamed. And the parents championing this thinking it'll be the salvation of your kids? You should look in the mirror and be disgusted.

This is eugenics, and it's horrifying.
November 20, 2025 at 3:34 PM
capledbetter.bsky.social
Absolutely Admiral, thank you for the blessing and well-wishes :)

My typical post would usually be on my Sagan, but we seemed to have gotten caught in a temporal vortex and are in the 23rd century. Not that I'm complaining about the temporary reassignment - the Shangri-La is a fine lass indeed 💕
March 11, 2025 at 10:09 PM
capledbetter.bsky.social
I just want to say the most heartfelt thank you to you and the STO team for your work on the Shangri-La. This has been such an awful week, and finally seeing her in the game - especially as a Command ship - legit made me cry tears of joy. She's absolutely perfect and I cannot wait to fly her ❤️💙
March 11, 2025 at 9:24 PM
capledbetter.bsky.social
My statement on the inaguration of President Donald Trump today:

Disabled people matter so, so much, but we don't seem to matter to our governmental systems and culture - and certainly won't under Trump.
You know what I can't shake the feeling about? That even under our administration before today in the US, disability rights and advocacy wasn't a primary issue. Disabled people are struggling with awful healthcare systems, constant stigma, and non-disabled people deciding what it means for them to exist or not. And that was under a Democratic leadership that ostensibly cared about the rights of other intersecting minority groups - which means that after today, and for the next four years (and maybe beyond), disability rights, neurodiversity, and advocacy will be bottom-of-the-list issues for our governmental climate. We will continue to not be seen as significant or important, and we will continue to suffer and die. Not because it's inherent to our lives, but because of systems and cultures that non-disabled people have created and refuse to dismantle. And for that and so much more, President Trump does not deserve to hold the mantle of one of the highest offices in the world. But to this little community of mine, I want you to know that we are important to each other and deserve the love and joy and rights as much as anybody else. And I'll keep fighting for it even knowing that the fight won't ever be quite finished. But it's sure as hell going to be an awful next few years. Stay safe, my lovely, endlessly beautiful and wonderful disabled friends ❤️
January 20, 2025 at 6:46 PM
capledbetter.bsky.social
We can see this from groups like the National Council of Severe Autism, Profound Autism Alliance, and Autism Science Foundation, who lobby for genetic prenatal tests, oppose neurodiversity advocates in autism discussions, and label autism as a "threat to our economy and national security" 6/
"At ASF, we fund a broad spectrum of autism research topics—from genetic discovery, to early warning signs, biomarkers of diagnosis, interventions, gender and racial disparities, and ways to improve service delivery" Autism Science Foundation (https://autismsciencefoundation.org/what-we-fund/) "The IACC was created by Congress by the Autism CARES Act of 2019, to advise the director of the NIH on effectuating the terms of the Act, which authorizes annual federal spending on autism of $369.7 million through 2024. Congress explicitly intended the CARES funding to investigate autism’s causes (including environmental causes), detection, prevention, services, and treatment (42 U.S. Code sec 284g). Nevertheless we have already seen neurodiversity-oriented members expressing opposition to research on causation and prevention. Can you imagine an NIH Advisory Committee on the Causation, Prevention and Treatment of Cancer selecting people opposed to research on causation and prevention of cancer? It would be a national outrage. Yet this is the betrayal of American law (and science, and families) we see in the IACC." National Council on Severe Autism (https://www.ncsautism.org/blog//iacc-2021-a-potemkin-village-for-autism) "Use of the term profound autism is about clarity, not competition. People with profound autism consistently experience unique, devastating, and often unseen challenges that require solutions, not only for them but for their caregivers." Profound Autism Alliance (https://www.profoundautism.org/about-us/our-mission/) "In addition, we believe the CARES Act should also emphasize the funding of research to finally pinpoint the still-mysterious causes behind this devastating epidemic of neurodevelopmental pathology. We believe the statute should explicitly prioritize genetics-environment interactions in autism’s unexplained heritability. We can ill afford to throw more money at repetitive and failed genetic and environmental hypotheses. Autism has grown to become a major threat to our economy and national security; we must bend the curve." National Council on Severe Autism (https://www.ncsautism.org/blog//ncsa-submits-concerns-about-the-autism-cares-act-reauthorization-now-is-the-time-for-bold-action)
December 17, 2024 at 12:56 AM
capledbetter.bsky.social
Alongside his, the article pushes the "profound autism" idea, trying to bifurcate different types of autistic people into categories that ultimately maintain dehumanizing narratives of the autistic community, preserving the false high/low-functioning narrative parents have clung to for decades. 4/
Due to the wide range of characteristics and needs of autistic people, some researchers have proposed a new category called profound autism, Mandell said. This diagnosis would be given to autistic people who will require the constant presence of an adult to help them throughout their lifetime. These people usually have an intellectual or language disability, or both. Mandell said that perhaps Kennedy was in fact referring to people with profound autism. But even if so, “his statement that there’s no one his age who has profound autism or you haven’t met them — you may not have met them, but that’s very different from them not existing. And what he has said is patently false.”
December 17, 2024 at 12:50 AM
capledbetter.bsky.social
However, that same FactCheck.org article cites Cathy Lord - one of the most prominent autism researchers responsible for both the current autism diagnostic tests and the 2013 criteria, much of which rely on measuring behavior observed by practitioners to determine how autistic someone "appears". 3/
“No there is absolutely no evidence that vaccines cause autism,” Catherine Lord, a clinical psychologist and autism researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, told us in an email. “This proposition has been repeatedly rejected including withdrawal of the first article that proposed it (and subsequent loss of medical status of its author) and every study since then,” she said, referring to the retracted Lancet paper. Researchers criticized Kennedy’s characterization of autism. Lord and Mandell told us there’s no such diagnosis as “full-blown autism,” the behaviors of autistic people and support they need vary, and there are autistic people in Kennedy’s generation. “Many of them would not have been recognized as such but they absolutely do exist,” Lord said.
December 17, 2024 at 12:49 AM
capledbetter.bsky.social
More importantly, RFK lists stigmatizing behaviors often perceived as inherently autistic that a.) are likely due to complex factors not inherent to autism (co-occurring disabilities, lack of communicative supports, trauma), and b.) feed into the ableist systems that justify the anti-vax stance. 2/
In a June 5 SiriusXM town hall, Kennedy, who is 69 years old, told radio and TV host Michael Smerconish: “I have never in my life seen a man my age with full-blown autism, not once. Where are these men? One out of every 22 men who are walking around the mall with helmets on, who are non-toilet-trained, nonverbal, stimming, toe-walking, hand-flapping. I’ve never seen it.” He said on a June 15 episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast: “I bet that you’ve never met anybody with full-blown autism your age. You know, head banging, football or helmet on, non-toilet-trained, nonverbal. I mean, I’ve never met anybody like that my age.”
December 17, 2024 at 12:47 AM
capledbetter.bsky.social
Having that context is really useful as someone who loves art direction, and it helps me see the new Earth in a different light, which I love!

Also I just wanted to say thank you for having the Sagan inside ESD. She's my favorite and seeing her get her flowers like this almost makes me cry 🖖
November 17, 2024 at 1:12 AM
capledbetter.bsky.social
Welp, what better way to start off my time on here then with a bang?
Alt text: an image of the United States Electoral College map all in one color with the words "Autism Moms" between Democrats and Republicans, a bar in the same color with the number 538 in the middle, and pictures of Alison Singer, Jill Escher, and Jenny McCarthy above the map
November 6, 2024 at 10:51 PM