Shain Neumeier

Shain Mahaffey Neumeier (born 1987) is an American autistic and nonbinary transgender attorney from Los Angeles, California.[1][2][3][1][4] Neumeier is best known for advocacy against coercive and forced treatment, including advocacy to close the Judge Rotenberg Center, an institution for people with developmental disabilities that has been condemned by the United Nations for torture due to its use of electric shocks on people with disabilities.[2][5][6] They are also an activist for autism rights, disability rights, youth liberation, asexuality, and transgender rights. Neumeier has multiple disabilities including post-traumatic stress disorder, cleft lip and palate, ectodermal dysplasia, and depression.[4][7][8]

Shain Neumeier
Born1987 (age 32–33)
NationalityAmerican
EducationBachelor of arts, Smith College, 2009 Juris doctor, Suffolk University Law School, 2012
OccupationAttorney, activist
Known forDisability, youth, and transgender rights activism
Partner(s)Lydia Brown
Parent(s)
  • Ed Neumeier (father)
AwardsLeadership in Advocacy Award, Association of University Centers on Disabilities; Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year Award, Massachusetts Bar Association
HonorsPhi Delta Phi
Autism rights movement
People

Biography

Education

Neumeier studied at Smith College and Suffolk University Law School and later worked on youth rights policy issues for the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth.[9]

Advocacy

Neumeier advocates against coercive and forced treatment, and calls to close the Judge Rotenberg Center, an institution known for using electric skin shock aversive treatment on people with developmental disabilities.[10][11][12] In 2012, Neumeier attended a medical malpractice trial against the Judge Rotenberg Center brought by former resident Andre McCollins, who received 31 shocks over a period of six hours.[13] Neumeier also testified before the United Nations special rapporteur on torture about the Judge Rotenberg Center.[14] They supported the FDA's ban of electric shock devices in 2020.[15]

The Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network stated that "without [Neumeier's] groundbreaking work, JRC might not have the same level of visibility it does now in the autistic community worldwide."[14] In 2019, University of Portsmouth psychology professor Dr. Steven K. Kapp wrote, "Shain Neumeier and Lydia Brown [...] have taken leading roles in activism to stop the electric use of shocks as 'treatment'."[16] Neumeier has stated that the shock "treatment" is connected to the behavioral modification goals of applied behavior analysis, a widely used form of early intervention treatment for autism.[17]

Neumeier also endorses abortion rights activism while opposing contemporary eugenics.[18]

Published articles

Neumeier published a series of seven articles for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network about the trial against the Judge Rotenberg Center.[19] Neumeier has written and commented on ban on the electric shock aversive, reproductive justice, abortion rights, and bodily autonomy for USA Today, The Nation,[18][10] Rewire,[11][20] and NOS Magazine.[21][22][23] One of Neumeier's articles about abuse and discrimination against children with disabilities was published by Icelandic disability rights organization, Tabú.[24]

In Neumeier's essay for disability rights activist Alice Wong's 2018 collection Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People, they describe life in the U.S. under the Trump administration as creating a "culture of abuse" and relying on a form of social Darwinism that praises strength and vilifies perceived weakness, such as desire for safe spaces.[25][26] In 2019, they co-authored an article describing their and Lydia Brown's advocacy work against the JRC for a collection of essays titled Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline.[27]

Attorney

As an attorney, Neumeier worked for Disability Rights New York, a statewide protection and advocacy agency for people with disabilities, before going into solo practice in Massachusetts.[28] Their law practice represents people facing petitions for involuntary commitment.[29] They are an adviser for Supported Decision-Making New York,[30] a statewide coalition focused on development of best practices and policies to enable people with intellectual disabilities and cognitive impairments. They are also an adviser and New England/New York Region Leader for the Intersex and Genderqueer Recognition Project, a transgender rights legal and advocacy organization.[31]

Awards

In 2018, Neumeier received the Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Bar Association.[32] In 2015, they received the Leadership in Advocacy Award from the Association of University Centers on Disabilities.[33]

Personal life

Neumeier's father is Edward Neumeier, a screenwriter known for co-writing the film RoboCop.[34]

Selected works
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.
  • Neumeier, Shain, "Inhumane Beyond All Reason: The Torture of Autistics and Other People with Disabilities at the Judge Rotenberg Center," in Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking edited by Julia Bascom (The Autistic Press, 2012)[35]
  • Neumeier, Shain. "MTV's portrayal of teen treatment centers is misleading," in Teen Residential Treatment Programs (At Issue) edited by Judeen Bartos (Greenhaven Press, 2013)[36]
  • Neumeier, Shain, "Back into the Fires that Forged Us," in Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People edited by Alice Wong (Disability Visibility Project, 2018)[25]
  • Neumeier, Shain and Brown, Lydia, "Torture in the Name of Treatment: The Mission to Stop the Shocks in the Age of Deinstitutionalization," in Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline edited by Steven K. Kapp (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019)[27]

References
  1. "Distinguishing Between Media and Reality". Los Angeles Times. 2003-01-15. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  2. "Activists Tell FDA Head: Ban Electric Shocks on People With Autism - Rewire.News". Rewire.News. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  3. "15 Autistic Activists You Should Follow This Autism Acceptance Month - Rooted in Rights". www.rootedinrights.org. 2018-04-26. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  4. ""I'm Not Done Living My Damn Life Yet": Disabled Queer People Speak Out on the American Health Care Act". Autostraddle. 2017-06-12. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  5. Adams, DL; Erevelles, Nirmala (2017-04-21). "Unexpected spaces of confinement: Aversive technologies, intellectual disability, and "bare life"". Punishment & Society. 19 (3): 348–365. doi:10.1177/1462474517705147. ISSN 1462-4745.
  6. "The School of Shock". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  7. Perry, David M. (2018-01-04). "Republicans Are Using Fear of Eugenics to Attack Reproductive Rights". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  8. Autism National Committee (2015). "AutCom 2015 Conference Program" (PDF).
  9. Autism NOW Center (June 2013). "An Autistic View of Employment: Advice, Essays, Stories, and More from Autistic Self Advocates" (PDF).
  10. Perry, David M. (2017-09-13). "My Body, My Choice: Why the Principle of Bodily Autonomy Can Unite the Left". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  11. "Activists Tell FDA Head: Ban Electric Shocks on People With Autism - Rewire.News". Rewire.News. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  12. Adams, DL; Erevelles, Nirmala (2017-04-21). "Unexpected spaces of confinement: Aversive technologies, intellectual disability, and "bare life"". Punishment & Society. 19 (3): 348–365. doi:10.1177/1462474517705147. ISSN 1462-4745.
  13. "31 Shocks Later". NYMag.com. Retrieved 2018-05-20.
  14. daVanport, Sharon. "Stop the shocks: New toolkit builds on autistic community's anti-JRC work - Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network (AWN)". www.awnnetwork.org. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  15. Adams, Heather (9 March 2020). "After FDA bans Massachusetts school from using electric shock devices, advocates seek public apology, reparations". masslive. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
  16. Kapp, Steven K. (2020). "Introduction". In Kapp, Steven K. (ed.). Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement. Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline. Springer. pp. 1–19. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-8437-0_1. ISBN 978-981-13-8437-0.
  17. Kirkham, Patrick (2017). "'The line between intervention and abuse' – autism and applied behaviour analysis". History of the Human Sciences. 30 (2): 107–126. doi:10.1177/0952695117702571.
  18. Perry, David M. (2018-01-04). "Republicans Are Using Fear of Eugenics to Attack Reproductive Rights". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  19. Neumeier, Shain. "The Judge Rotenberg Center on Trial, Part One". Autistic Self-Advocacy Network. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  20. "'To Siri With Love' and the Problem With Neurodiversity Lite - Rewire.News". Rewire.News. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  21. "The Disability Rights Movement Must Be Pro-Choice". NOS Magazine. 2017-04-11. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  22. "New Compliance Tracking Drugs Violate Human Rights". NOS Magazine. 2017-12-19. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  23. "Past time to ban skin shocks to disabled: Column".
  24. Neumeier, Shain (May 10, 2017). "Afstofnannavæðið skólakerfið!". Tabú (in Icelandic). Freyja Haraldsdóttir (translator). Retrieved 2018-05-22.
  25. Resistance and hope : essays by disabled people. Wong, Alice. [Los Gatos]. 2018. ISBN 978-0-463-25570-4. OCLC 1089194812.CS1 maint: others (link)
  26. Quirici, Marion (2019-11-01). "15Disability Studies". The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory. 27 (1): 282–302. doi:10.1093/ywcct/mbz015. ISSN 1077-4254.
  27. Neumeier, Shain M.; Brown, Lydia X. Z. (2020), Kapp, Steven K. (ed.), "Torture in the Name of Treatment: The Mission to Stop the Shocks in the Age of Deinstitutionalization", Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement: Stories from the Frontline, Springer, pp. 195–210, doi:10.1007/978-981-13-8437-0_14, ISBN 978-981-13-8437-0
  28. "Panel Talks Disability Rights". 2014-10-31. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  29. Journal, A. B. A. "For lawyers with autism, the work often pairs up with things they do well". ABA Journal. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  30. "Supported Decision-Making New York | Advisors". Supported Decision-Making New York. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  31. Intersex and Genderqueer Recognition Project. "About". Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  32. "eJournal-2018-August-08-02". www.massbar.org. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  33. "AUCD - 2015 AUCD Leadership in Advocacy Award". www.aucd.org. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  34. "Distinguishing Between Media and Reality". Los Angeles Times. 2003-01-15. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  35. Bascom, Julia (2012). Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking. Washington, DC: The Autistic Press. pp. 204–220. ISBN 978-1938800023.
  36. Teen residential treatment programs. Bartos, Judeen., Thomson Gale (Firm). Detroit: Greenhaven Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. 2013. ISBN 9780737761498. OCLC 930684586.CS1 maint: others (link)
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