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Bully Gets a PG-13 Rating; Ari Ne'eman on Erasing Tyler's Autism

Submitted by Landon Bryce on Fri, 04/06/2012 - 10:31
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The film Bully will be released with a PG-13 rating.  So I am in the awkward position of telling a goal I asked you to help fight for, of reaching the largest number possible of kids with the film, has been reached. And then saying that I'm not sure they should see it.

Ari Ne'eman, president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, makes this statement regarding the choice of the film's producers not to mention that Tyler Long, whose suicide is a major part of the film, had Asperger's syndrome:

We're deeply concerned and disappointed that the makers of Bully chose not to include mention of Tyler Long's autism diagnosis in their film. By excluding mention of his disability, the movie missed an opportunity to talk about the broader issues of prejudice facing Autistic people in school and society.

When I thought the cut of the film still might be in flux, it seemed possible, if extremely unlikely, that it might be mention to actually get this to be changed.  With the ratings issue taken care of, that no longer seems possible.

We have been erased.

Again.