Payton sent a message to J. Paul Raines – Chief Executive Officer of GameStop Corporation – Email Address that said:
J. Paul Raines,
I am writing this to you in the hopes that you may read it among the other however many emails you may receive in a day. I am a member of the autistic community who has long supported your corporation and has always had pleasant experiences in your stores. I feel I can no longer have this after you have partnered with Autism Speaks (or as I know them, Autism $peaks).
In my experience, Autism Speaks does not help the autistic community but rather they help themselves. They are a largely anti-vaccine group, with many of their board members being members of those same such groups. They do not wish to help people with autism, their mission statement on their website assures us of this much as they say their goal is to cure autism. Autism does not need to be cured, people like me do not need to be taken away from this society because of how we are different.
It is also interesting to note that Autism Speaks does not follow the first rule of disabled charities: "Nothing about us without us." There are no autistic members on their board. At one time, they had one, John who was the author of the book "Look Me in The Eye." He resigned in 2013 because he wanted to help people with autism and people on the spectrum help to get past their disabilities, and he felt that autism speaks did the opposite of this and I cannot agree more. You can find his full reason for leaving in this link
And as for Autism Speaks, I obviously cannot put everything that I have found wrong with them in one email, but I do have a link that should:
Mr. Raines, as a faithful customer of your establishment and a member of the community you mean to help by becoming a corporate sponsor, please reconsider donating to them. Instead, please consider the Autism Self Advocacy Network. They are truly helping people with autism like myself.
Sincerely,
Payton
