Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent comments about people with autism continue to face backlash from members of the autistic community, including the stars of the hit Netflix reality series “Love on the Spectrum.”
In a TikTok video, James B. Jones, who has appeared on all three seasons of the show, called Kennedy’s remarks about those who have the neurodevelopmental disorder “extremely ignorant, and to be perfectly frank, downright offensive.”
What did Kennedy say?
During a press conference last week, Kennedy called autism a “preventable disease” and vowed to identify “environmental causes” responsible for the condition.
Kennedy’s comments were in response to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found about 3.2% of 8-year-olds had been diagnosed with autism as of 2022, up from 2.8% in 2020. Researchers attributed the increase, at least in part, to improvements in autism screening — an idea Kennedy rejected.
The health secretary also made sweeping claims about children with autism and their families.
“Autism destroys families, and more importantly, it destroys our greatest resource, which is our children. These are children who should not be suffering like this,” Kennedy said. “These are kids who will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.”
What are people on the show saying?
Netflix’s “Love on the Spectrum,” which debuted in 2022, follows people on the autism spectrum as they navigate the dating world.
“I am old enough, I am of sufficient age that I can remember a time when society did not have a very thorough understanding of autism or similar forms of neurodiversity,” Jones, 37, said on TikTok. “So, I am very displeased, very disheartened to hear someone make comments of that nature.”
Jones, who works in IT, told People magazine he is living proof of Kennedy’s ignorance about autism.
“I am now a 37-year-old grown adult. I drive. I’ve had my driver’s license since I was 17. … I have a permanent, 40-hour-per-week job with benefits, which I have held steadily since 2017. I am responsible for all of my own expenses,” Jones said. “Apart from the fact that I still live with my parents, I believe I’m doing quite well.”
Shelley Wolfe, Jones’s girlfriend, who also appears on the show, responded similarly in a TikTok video of her own.
“I am autistic and my life is not a tragedy,” Wolfe said.
She explained that she moved to Japan to study on a university scholarship and lived there for seven years by herself.
“I cooked by myself. I did my taxes by myself,” said Wolfe, who now works as a senior advertising manager.
“Autism has definitely made my life harder, but it’s something that [we] shouldn’t be told we need to prevent. It’s something that we should accept and understand in society,” she said, adding: “Autistic people are not broken, they just think differently.”
Dani Bowman at a screening of Netflix’s “Love on the Spectrum” in Los Angeles on April 1. (Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix)
Dani Bowman, another “Love on the Spectrum” star, told NewsNation that she was “disgusted” by Kennedy’s comments.
“Autistic people have the same hopes, dreams and yes, the same awkward dating moments as anyone else,” Bowman told NewsNation. “To generalize and say none of us can work, date or contribute to society, is completely false. I have a job. I do pay taxes. I’ve dated. I have a master’s degree.
“Wanting to cure autism implies that our way of being is wrong, and it isn’t. We don’t need to be fixed. We need to be supported,” she added. “But the answer isn’t erasing autism, it’s building a more inclusive world for all of us.”