16 Facts About Mel Baggs

Mel Baggs was born in Mountain View, California on August 15,1980, to Ronald and Anna Mel Baggs.

Mel Baggs moved from California to Vermont to be closer to a friend in 2005.

Mel Baggs created a website titled "Getting the Truth Out", a response to a campaign by the Autism Society of America.

In January 2007, Mel Baggs posted a video on YouTube entitled "In My Language" on the topic of autism which became the subject of several articles on CNN.

Mel Baggs guest-blogged about the video on Anderson Cooper's blog and answered questions from the audience via email.

Video artist Mark Leckey stated he was, in a sense, envious of Mel Baggs' stated empathic relationship to inanimate objects.

Mel Baggs advocated for a consistent definition of autism awareness, claiming that awareness was misrepresented by both parents and some advocates.

Mel Baggs said they named their first blog "Ballastexistenz" to show that people like them were capable of living a worthy life, since it was a historical term, "Ballastexistenzen", used to describe disabled people as incapable.

Mel Baggs described themself as genderless and nonbinary in their writings.

Mel Baggs spoke about having other disabling conditions in addition to autism.

Mel Baggs wrote extensively on Deja News in the late 1990s, discussing their drug use and mental breakdown, stating that they had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and theorizing that they may have had dissociative identity disorder.

In 2013, Mel Baggs said that they had been diagnosed with gastroparesis and were now using a feeding tube.

Mel Baggs claimed a loss of all functional speech in their 20s.

Mel Baggs claimed that augmentative communication is somewhat common among autistic individuals, though they supported the use of the controversial facilitated communication and other widely scientifically discredited alternative therapies.

Mel Baggs claimed to use FC, and that Fey, their cat, was their best facilitator as Fey moved their limbs around.

Mel Baggs died on April 11,2020, at the age of 39 in Burlington, Vermont; their mother said that the cause of their death was believed to be respiratory failure.