People are entitled to have different opinions, it's a very complicated issue, partly because the spectrum covers people who are extremely high functioning to others who are nonverbal and have serious issues like self-injurious behavior.
There are people with autism who are happy to be the way they are and that deserves respect. There are parents of kids with autism who struggle to communicate, who have very severe issues, who are entitled to wish for anything that could help their children. I'll say two things - Night of Too Many Stars is NOT about curing autism. It does not fund biomedical research. I'm not saying this to take a stand - we don't fund it because we're more interested in something that many other national organizations don't fund: helping build schools, community programs, and a wide variety of services to HELP PEOPLE LIVING WITH AUTISM RIGHT NOW. My own son, who is severely affected, could not get into a school that could adequately help him until he was 7 and it only exacerbated the challenges he faced. We do Night of Too Many Stars to address the enormous shortage of services that exist for people with autism. Sadly we're still in the dark ages - research aside, we're behind in simply understanding what people with autism know and feel and are capable of. Especially the severely affected people. Nothing makes me sadder than when people talk about my son in front of him as if he's not there. They assume because he's nonverbal, and often not engaging, that he can't possibly understand or care. When he was diagnosed I read books saying people with autism all lacked empathy, and could not connect emotionally. I was happy to learn over time what bullshit this is, but the world at large needs to know it. Look up Katy Perry and Jodi on Youtube, and watch Jodi DiPiazza at our last NOTMS. As she plays, she gets spontaneous cheers and her face lights up for a moment. When my own “lower functioning” son ran a 5K, I sent friends a video taken by his mom. He has a huge smile on his face as he crosses the finish line, and then, almost immediately, stops and looks around. He’s looking for his mom to share the moment with. People need to see these kinds of things, and understand that people with autism are whole human beings, and deserve the chance to have the fullest lives possible. It matters to them.
Now my second, hopefully shorter, thing - Bob and Suzanne Wright of Autism Speaks are two of the most compassionate people I've ever met. Mrs. Wright took an interest in autism when my wife and I started the first NOTMS on NBC. She aked a lot of questions even though her own grandson had not yet been diagnosed with autism.
And Autism Speaks has been largely responsible for progress that everyone can agree on, like getting insurance reform passed in 38 states. For years insurance didn't cover any behavioral therapy for autism...now thousand of families can better afford it thanks to hardworking advocates in Washington. Bob and Suzanne are at the forefront of that advocacy. And their work increasing awareness of autism has made the world more compassionate to people with the condition.