RIP: Here Be Dragons

It's done. Kowalski, the owner of Here Be Dragons has closed her doors. She's stopped blogging. She's no longer going to be taking a stand against neurobigotry on the Internet. She's gone.

Why?

Because some people, who were ostensibly part of the autistic community, saw fit to bully threaten and sexually harass her to a point where she was no longer able to tolerate the abuse. When this behavior was brought to the attention of people who could have done something about it, namely Autism Hub and ASAN, her complaints were ignored and the abuser was protected.

I'm deeply saddened. I'm saddened by the fact that we, as a community, have lost a great and important voice in our struggle for equality. Yet moreover, I am saddened that we, as a community, could allow such evil to cause such hurt to a fellow human being, especially someone in such a vulnerable situation as her.

Finally, I am saddened that we, as a community, could allow something like this to happen at all. That the fabric of who we are is so weak that we don't seem to care about the well being of, not just others, but of our own, that could allow this kind of abuse to happen.

Families who hurt each other are not families. Friends who bully are not friends. Communities who's members seek out and destroy each other are nothing more than groups of people with similar goals.

I will continue to blog and advocate for the rights of autistic people if for no other reason than I am looking out for my own best interest. There are many autistic people out there who are good, decent, caring people and these people I feel proud to call my allies and my friends. But as a whole, our movement and our community have ceased to be; maybe not today, or yesterday, or even last year. Yet, it was sick and dying and until we can learn to stand together and, as a community, learn to not tolerate this kind of behavior, we will remain sick and dying.

If nothing else, we can not truly be strong so long as we are such divided.

... and that makes me very, very sad.