Editing Mel Baggs

{{Infobox person
| picture=
| caption=
| date_birth=August 15, 1980
| place_birth=Mountain View, California, USA
| date_death=April 11, 2020
| place_death=Burlington, Vermont, USA
| nationality=American
| pronouns=sie/hir<ref name="TDOV">{{cite web|url=https://withasmoothroundstone.tumblr.com/post/115187595380/transgender-day-of-visibility-mel-age-34|title=Transgender day of visibility.|date=April 2015}}</ref>
| gender=[[genderless]] [[lesbian]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://withasmoothroundstone.tumblr.com/post/145842413020/im-a-genderless-lesbian-and|title=I’m a genderless lesbian and…|date=June 2016}}</ref>
| occupation=Autism activist
| known_for=
}}
'''Mel Baggs''' was a well-known autistic activist blogger.<ref name="Brown">{{Cite web |title=On Mel Bagg’s untimely death |authorlink=Lydia X. Z. Brown|last=Brown |first=Lydia |work=Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network (AWN) |date=12 April 2020 |access-date=9 June 2020 |url= https://awnnetwork.org/on-mel-baggs-untimely-death/}}</ref> Baggs created a website titled "Getting the Truth Out", a response to a campaign by the Autism Society of America. Sie claimed that the ASA's campaign made autistic people objects of pity.<ref name="NYTObituary">{{cite news |last1=Genzlinger |first1=Neil |title=Mel Baggs, Blogger on Autism and Disability, Dies at 39 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/health/mel-baggs-dead.html |accessdate=29 April 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=28 April 2020}}</ref> Sie also spoke at conferences about disabilities, and worked with Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists that were researching autism.<ref name="WaPo">{{cite web |last1=Smith|first1=Harrison|title=Mel Baggs, influential blogger on disability and autism, dies at 39 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mel-baggs-influential-blogger-on-disability-and-autism-dies-at-39/2020/04/29/bbb0fdd2-8a24-11ea-ac8a-fe9b8088e101_story.html |website=Washington Post |accessdate=30 April 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

In January 2007, Baggs posted a video on YouTube entitled ''In My Language''<ref>{{Cite web|title=In My Language|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnylM1hI2jc|last=Baggs|first=Mel|date=14 January 2007|website=YouTube|access-date=23 February 2007}}</ref> describing the experience of living as an autistic person, which became the subject of several articles on CNN.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Living with autism in a world made for others|url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/02/21/autism.amanda/index.html|last=Gajilan|first=A. Chris|date=February 22, 2007|website=CNN|access-date=2007-02-25}}</ref><ref name="Gupta">{{Cite web|title=Behind the veil of autism|url=http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/blogs/paging.dr.gupta/2007/02/behind-veil-of-autism.html|last=Gupta|first=Sanjay|date=20 February 2007|website=CNN|access-date=2007-02-25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Video reveals world of autistic woman|url=http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2007/02/video-reveals-world-of-autistic-woman.html|last=Abedin|first=Shahreen|date=21 February 2007|website=CNN|access-date=2007-02-25}}</ref> Baggs also guest-blogged about the video on Anderson Cooper's blog<ref name="listen">{{Cite web|title=Why we should listen to 'unusual' voices|url=http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2007/02/why-we-should-listen-to-unusual-voices.html|last=Baggs|first=Mel|date=February 21, 2007|website=CNN|access-date=2007-02-25}}</ref> and answered questions from the audience via email.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Amanda Baggs answers your questions|url=http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2007/02/amanda-baggs-answers-your-questions.html|last=Baggs|first=Mel|date=22 February 2007|website=CNN|access-date=2007-02-25}}</ref>

Baggs died on April 11, 2020 at the age of 39 in Burlington, Vermont; hir mother said that the cause of hir death was believed to be respiratory failure.<ref name=NYTObituary/>

==References==
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[[Category: Activists]]
[[Category: Nonbinary people]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baggs, Mel}}
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