Fighting for Existence: Celebrating the Counterstories and Intersections of Education, Neurodiverse & Queer Peoples in K-12

• In Event: Counter Points and Counter Stories: The Long Struggle of Resistance

Abstract

The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr.’s campaign to “Make America healthy again” targets the autistic community with the director of the National Institute of Health, Bhattacharya confirming that the NIH is currently building a tracking system for autistic people. RFK Jr.’s disparaging comments insinuated that “autism was an epidemic that destroys families”, that autistic people could not pay taxes, create art or contribute to society (Lapowsky, 2025). Additionally, Trump’s administration is dismantling civil and human right protections making students, parents, teachers and community members worried about their safety (Hunter, 2025 & O’Brien, 2025). With the dismantling of policies and legal protections, how are queer and neurodiverse students, students, and staff navigating these changes? What spaces, tools, and best practices do queer and neurodiverse students, faculty, and staff utilize? We used intersectionality (Collins, 2009; 2015) as our framework and counterstorytelling (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) as our methodology.

Authors

• Dre Abeita, University of New Mexico

• Greg Scott Abernathy, Anand Cannabis Consulting Group LLC.