I was presented this week with a scenario that was very difficult for me. An Autistic listener who needs personal financial assistance. The individual asked me to post their gofundme page on Today's Autistic Moment's social media networks. That would be Facebook, X, LinkedIN, and Instagram. That request put me through a lot of emotion personally.
I have been in the position where I was desperate to pay the rent, buy food or keep my car on the road with auto insurance. I have also been in numerous situations where I was unemployed. During many of those periods where I was unemployed, I got rejections from potential employers, had my intelligence insulted with employers giving me their excuses for not hiring me, and endless rounds of making partial payments on bills through agreements. I have had my telephone turned off and my internet disconnected while in these situations. It is a terrible place to be.
I have also had many moments when I turned to agencies to seek financial support for my daily needs. Many of the counselors treated me very poorly for even approaching them for assistance. Once I was able to get some general assistance from my local county economic assistance department, that included food support; I remember feeling lower than a snake's shadow for using my EBT card at the super market to buy groceries. I felt the judgement of many others around me who might have thought, "This guy is super fat. He doesn't need food support. He is just fleecing the system."
Given my own history with being on the brink of homelessness and such, I really wanted to help the person who emailed me. However, as the owner of Today's Autistic Moment I cannot. The reasons why are that if I help one individual with a personal fundraiser through Today's Autistic Moment, I would be obligated to help everyone who might email me with a similar request. I would be placed in a terrible position between who I can provide that service to, and who I could not. There is also a potential liability to Today's Autistic Moment if I should help one person, but not someone else. If I were to open that floodgate, it would be next to impossible for me to close it back up. There is also the potential of supporting someone claiming to be who they say they are, and some Artificial Intelligence program or spam bot, and it winds up being a phishing scam for Today's Autistic Moment and anyone who should participate in the fundraiser. Again, that puts Today's Autistic Moment at risk and possibly my audience at a terrible risk. I cannot take a risk that could result in the harm it could do to the podcast and everyone who is part of the network.
I created Today's Autistic Moment four years ago, because I had a vision of a podcast that would give Autistic Adults the opportunity to find a safe space where our voices are heard without being shut down or spoken over. It has become a podcast with a lot of trust by my guests, sponsors and audience. In addition to all of that, Today's Autistic Moment is a podcast where Autistics get to listen to other Autistics who will identify what they are going through with empathy so that they can find the strength within themselves and one another to move past the negative stereotypes of having a deficit with many limitations that place them at disadvantages that we must "overcome" to find acceptance and "inspire" the Neurotypical population to appreciate us.
In addition, I created Today's Autistic Moment with the help of the Minnesota Department of Vocational Rehabilitation Services to function as a private business owned & operated by a sole proprietor, and that is me. Today's Autistic Moment is not a nonprofit organization. Therefore, Today's Autistic Moment cannot help anyone to obtain financial assistance directly from Today's Autistic Moment or indirectly on social media platforms through gofundme or any personal fundraising venues.
I can just hear someone say "You are doing a fundraiser during February for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, why can't you help me?" The difference is that the Autistic Self Advocacy Network is a nonprofit organization that supports the Autistic Community as a whole through nonviolent civil disobedience when necessary, is working to eradicate ableism for many Autistics with various disabilities, and to improve the lives of Autistics through research, information for social acceptance. Today's Autistic Moment can raise funds for nonprofit organizations, and I can chose what organizations I will support and which one's I will not without the same risks as I would if I assist individuals.
If anyone is in some kind of need for personal assistance, I encourage you to visit the Adult Autism Resources Links Page here on Today's Autistic Moment's website. There are organizations that can support individual Autistics with financial assistance, job training, therapy, workshops and other opportunities in ways that I cannot.
Lastly, it absolutely sucks that I cannot help individual Autistics when they are in places of personal poverty and depravation. The current politics and legal consequences are putting Autistics and business owners like myself in these terrible situations are doing so and endangering everyone in the short and long term. I am personally opposed to the corruption of a capitalistic society with privileged people and corporations that are making a lot of money, but, keeps everyone else below them with hardly the means and resources to get up off of ground one. It is up to the many people of goodwill that do still exist to recognize that everyone should be given the means and resources to achieve equality and equity and do their part to help shape society to be fair and inclusive. This is one of the reasons why I am concentrating on the intersectional Autistic Adult Communities on Today's Autistic Moment.
All that being said, should I get any future emails from individuals requesting personal financial assistance including through gofundme, the answer is and must be no. I am truly very sorry that I have to make that decision.
