Thanks Michelle for that essay, which I like very much.
I was deeply touched and profoudly moved by "I identify totally with the cast-offs"; and the paragraph about Rosa Parks.
However I disagree with you about autism societies in so far as it applies to the National Autistic Society(NAS) in the UK. The NAS does welcome and represent autistic people. At least one autistic person, maybe two, is on the Board of Trustees; all members, whether autistic or not, have a vote on resolutions at the Annual General Meeting (AGM); autistic people speak in the business sessions of conferences and AGMs; on its website http://www.nas.org.uk there are several articles by autistic people and a substantial number of links to autistic people's websites.
The NAS is inclusive of autistic people and they can belong to it with integrity.