To the Editor:
Re “Kennedy Described My Daughter’s Reality,” by Emily May (Opinion guest essay, April 27):
Ms. May said what too many of us parents of autistic children have been forced to bury. Profound autism is not an idea. It’s not an identity slogan. It’s a reality that steals language, safety and futures — and pretending otherwise helps no one.
Like the author, I have spent years refusing the script that demands either silence or celebration. Naming our children’s pain is not betrayal. It is love, protection, survival.
Ms. May’s voice doesn’t stand alone. It joins a growing movement — parents who are done asking permission to tell the truth. We are building new alliances, pushing for real research and refusing to let our children’s suffering be edited out for political comfort.
The old institutions failed us because they fear reality more than they love our kids. We are writing something new, not because we wanted this fight, but because our children deserve it.
Thank you, Ms. May, for your courage.
Sarah Kernion
Westfield, N.J.
The writer is a mother of two children with nonspeaking autism and the founder of Saturday’s Story, a neurodiversity advocacy firm.
To the Editor:
Thank you for publishing Emily May’s cry from the heart about her daughter who has profound autism. I wish you would also publish a succinct piece about how desperate the need is for “a separate diagnostic category for such children — to help tailor research, policy and services more effectively,” as Ms. May writes.
