CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAY. If you’d like to gift a copy of Who Wants Normal? to someone who needs it this Christmas (but can’t afford it), I’m giving away my last author copy I just found. I’ll sign and dedicate it. RT and I’ll pick an account at random. Ends Wednesday 3rd December 8pm. U.K. only.

Five years ago today, our third child, Josie Jean Coates, was born sleeping. A few days later, I wrote something in an effort to process events and which I hoped might help other families in a similar boat. To mark Josie's heavenly birthday, here's that piece: www.garethcoates.com/2020/11/25/j...

To mark #WorldMentalHealthDay I would like to share something I wrote back in 2023. It’s about being an #autistic parent to a child who’s not just autistic; they have other needs too. It’s called ‘What If?’ and is a snapshot of a really early, difficult morning. www.garethcoates.com/2024/03/25/w...

This man told people to drink bleach to treat COVID-19. Autism isn’t “artificially induced” and it can’t be blamed on taking paracetamol during pregnancy. Or vaccines. This dangerous nonsense is going to kill people.

The new left wing party hasn't even got a name yet, and it has already disintegrated. Hopeless.

No, sorry, as a working class autistic I can honestly say I have never done any of the things Gregg Wallace has been accused of. Neurodivergence is not an excuse for inappropriate behaviour and it never was. Nor is class. If he’d behaved with a shred of decency, Wallace would still have a job.

Holy hell. If #DWP get this through, it will have massive ramifications. There are parts of the country where getting an NHS diagnosis for most/all kinds of neurodivergence is virtually impossible! I’m lucky in that I do have an NHS diagnosis but until provision is universal, many won’t

Cutting disability benefits will kill people. Fact. Plus the current claims process is cruel and unfit for purpose, as I discussed in my #Curae entry: www.garethcoates.com/2025/05/01/t... I’m hoping my MP, @anneliesemidgleymp.bsky.social will do the right thing and oppose the cuts

For those asking when they will see the work of all our shortlisted and winning writers, the answer is in our second #Curae anthology published late this year. Intro from me and brilliantly edited & produced by @renardpress.com - and raising funds for carers’ charities

If @elsawilliams.bsky.social can write so bravely about her experiences with PIP, then maybe I can share something I wrote in February but couldn't publish at the time. It's a story of knockbacks, tribunals and about DWP #TakingThePIP www.garethcoates.com/2025/05/01/t...

Congratulations to Charlotte, Rebekah and Judy, of course. But also to everyone else who was shortlisted for this year’s #Curae. Clearly, you are all awesome because you are simultaneously fantastic writers and unpaid carers. Thanks to the judges and everyone who helped make the prize happen.

I won’t be winning the #curae, but I am very excited to find out who is. Putting my entry together gave me some much needed mojo at a time when I really needed it. I’m so grateful to have been able to take part.

I enjoyed Kate’s early work but wasn’t familiar with her recent material. This is brilliant. Thanks to @untidymusic.com for reposting this into my timeline.

From the creators of "I don't like Rage against the Machine anymore, they've gone woke", we bring you a new, thrilling journey of self discovery:

Who’s going to tell Darren “Pocket Money” Jones that his Government’s proposed reforms to disability benefits are the opposite of “love and compassion”?

Back in February, I entered a personal essay into the non-fiction category of the #Curae Prize. It hasn't made the shortlist, so I'm free to publish it myself. As an Unpaid Carer who is #ActuallyAutistic, I've been through the mill, as the essay discusses: www.garethcoates.com/2025/05/01/t...

Massive congratulations to everyone listed below. I can’t wait to read your work in the anthology. Now to think about whether I should put my entry out there via my website.

Good luck to everyone who has joined me in entering the 2025 #Curae Prize. If nothing else, this vital project sees unpaid carers and allows us to show that we have other qualities.

"any addict can relapse and, for me, non-League football is essentially a legal narcotic". Most #ActuallyAutistic folk have Special Interests. I stepped away from my original SI a year ago but this week, I’m going back to a special place. More here: www.garethcoates.com/2025/04/22/j...

"any addict can relapse and, for me, non-League football is essentially a legal narcotic". Most #ActuallyAutistic folk have Special Interests. I stepped away from my original SI a year ago but this week, I’m going back to a special place. More here: www.garethcoates.com/2025/04/22/j...

This is for you #curae entrants I’ve got my lists back from @michaellangan.bsky.social @seaninhughes.bsky.social @tenpennydreams.bsky.social & Elissa Soave. I’ve read all the hundreds of entries and next week the shortlist will be drafted - announced 1st May. I am so proud of you all ❤️

Dan is spot on about Drama Queen. Sara gifted me a Kindle copy when I was newly diagnosed and I have recommended it widely (and not just in autistic spaces).

BBC iPlayer is currently showing the appeal hearing for Tommy Ten Names and his barrister has already tried to use ADHD as a reason his sentence is wrong. For the millionth time: NEURODIVERGENCE DOESN’T MAKE YOU A FASCIST. If you’re a dreadful person, it doesn’t matter how your brain is wired.

There isn’t an “autism epidemic”. There is an improvement in understanding of the condition and in diagnostic techniques. This means more people are receiving diagnosis. Autism isn’t a disease that needs curing. It’s a complex neurotype which needs support.

It is slightly mad to think that I graduated from the @openuniversity.bsky.social with an MA in Creative Writing on Saturday. I put my qualification to use with a few reflections on the day and the #OUFamily on my website. www.garethcoates.com/2025/04/01/g...

It’s #Graduation day. Crossing the stage at the Barbican later with most of my @openuniversity.bsky.social tutor group! Overjoyed to meet them all IRL and celebrate our all gaining MAs in Creative Writing.

Please tell me you’re going to push back against this, @anneliesemidgleymp.bsky.social? This is exactly what I feared when I emailed you recently…

With such a huge majority, Labour could have taxed the ultra-rich to balance the books and reversed Brexit to stimulate growth. Instead, they do this. These cuts are cruel, a betrayal of what Labour used to stand for and a choice the Government didn’t need to make.

The word “inadvertently” doing lots of heavy lifting here. According to DWP’s just published Impact Assessment, 800,000 disabled people would be £4,500 per year worse off. Does that seem inadvertent to you?

My only completed writing project so far this way was my entry into the #Curae... until today. Please enjoy a blog which references the writing prize organised by @bookwormvaught.bsky.social, Orwell and my fellow @openuniversity.bsky.social students, all at once. www.garethcoates.com/2025/03/25/o...

“In adults, there is scant evidence of either benefits or harms from the diagnosis itself.” If that’s true, Adam Rutherford isn’t looking in the right places. My diagnosis aged 41 was life-changing. More people are getting diagnosed because understanding of autism has improved.

PIP takes some of the risk out of my work life. Enabling things like self employment. PIP can also be used to fund motorbility so disabled people can get to work etc. It’s a baseline benefit. It being frame as a ‘out of work’ benefit is misleading as heck.

I don't think enough of a stink is being made about the naked dishonesty of Reeves and Starmer's crap about 'get people “trapped on benefits” back into work'. PIP is *incapable of trapping anyone.* You still get it if you're in work. It is one of the few UK benefits offering no perverse incentives!

I wrote to my MP, @anneliesemidgleymp.bsky.social, twice during my own appeal process (which was successful) and again before the announcement of these reforms. Not one of those emails has received a reply. I wish I’d known the change Labour was planning was “to be worse than the Tories”.

You know when you read something and think “I wish I’d written that”? Yeah, I wish I’d written this 👇

Politics is ultimately about choices: how you raise cash and where you spend it. Labour acts as if they are forced to cut disability benefits but leading economists say they can avoid it by taxing the super rich. Spending cuts are a political choice. Don’t let them pretend otherwise.

Great idea, Caroline. As it happens, I wrote to @anneliesemidgleymp.bsky.social about the challenges disabled people face just last week. These figures support everything I said.

See, this is *supposed* to be satire but I totally feel Jay’s pain. Been there, done that, burnt myself out…

This. Even during Tory Austerity, PIP was increased annually when other benefits were. The idea that this Labour Government is prepared to go where even George Osborne wouldn’t boggles my brain. Attlee and Bevan must be spinning in their graves.

Anyone else struggling to adjust to BlueSky? I don’t feel like I’ve found my “niche” or a reliable community. Example: I attempted to express solidarity with someone scared of losing PIP by sharing lived experience of my own renewal, but got blocked. I must have come across in a way they didn’t like

I’m so old I finished my A-Levels before World Book Day became the juggernaut it is but I suspect that (just like my son does now) I would have insisted on wearing my SCHOOL CLOTHES to go to SCHOOL. Dressing up would have totally twisted my melon, man.

Here is the poster that I forgot to attach. You can also access the initial questionnaire via QR code or by e-mailing Sarah directly at [email protected].

My @uoppald.bsky.social student Sarah Harwood is recruiting autistic parents of autistic child(ren) living anywhere about their experiences. She particularly needs fathers. Feel free to share this anywhere. See below below for participation details. research.sc/participant/ Thank you

I live in “some random country” whose armed forces served alongside their US colleagues in Iraq and Afghanistan. For JD Vance to describe the UK in this way is remarkably ignorant, profoundly disrespectful and unbecoming of the Vice-President of the United States.

4 more days left to enter #Curae - it won’t run again until 2026 at the earliest. Please don’t be shy! thecuraeprize.uk A unique prize for unpaid carers, offering mentoring, courses, industry access, bursaries, agent showcases, the support of top writers & publication in a beautiful anthology

Has anyone seen my plot? I appear to have mislaid it.

I have a big ask. My 9yo son is autistic and he’s been raising a betta fish he named Kevin. Yesterday He asked if he could “share a photo of Kevin with the whole world“. I don’t know if this will work, but a dad’s gotta try. Like and share if that’s your thing. Kevin says hi! 🐟👋