Autistic Pride Day 2017

It is autistic Pride day.

I participated in the York Region Pride Parade yesterday.  It was nice to see much of our town and surrounding area supporting LGBT+ people; bringing their whole family out to celebrate LGBT+ people and party with them.  It was great to be a part of something that celebrated my transgender son and who they are.

Today is a day which autistic people set apart to celebrate ourselves.  There are no (none that I know of) parades and very few events (none that I know of) planned to celebrate.  It is hard going through the year being told you need to be fixed as many in the LGBT+ community are also told.
There are many similarities between our communities- people wanting to fix us (gay conversion therapy/ABA have the same founder), people thinking we shouldn't exist.  We know there is nothing wrong with us.  We are proud of who we are.

Today we mainly celebrate through blog postings, but one day maybe we will have parades and festivals. We are a varied group but I'm sure it will happen. 

Happy Autistic Pride Day!
Here is a past post:

Sunday, 28 June 2015

Autistic Pride

Autism is not just a disability.  It is also a culture.  Most of us are proud autistics who don't want a cure.  We have our struggles and various social constructs can be very disabling but there are good things that can come with autism like our intense interests and attention to detail.

There are two ways of looking at autism, the medical and social models.  The medical model talks about all of our deficits and those deficits being our problem.  We need to be fixed and have to adjust to fit in with the world.  The medical model of disability is the usual way people view disability.  On the other hand, the social model talks about society being the barrier to the disabled person.  Society has a role in including the disabled person. Society needs to help remove the barriers and accommodate the disabled person.  The social model of disability does not see us as needing to be fixed and therefore is obviously the better model!

Older autistics are paving the way for younger autistics through their advocacy.  Allistic parents are learning that autism is not horrible monster that they have been told.  Autistics of varying verbal abilities are speaking out (with their mouth or through writing) to change things not only for us, but also for the autistics who are children and adults who live under someone else's authority.  Many of us are openly autistic in all areas of our lives, others cannot be due to employment or other circumstances.  That situation is not the autistic's fault.  It is a society which does not believe the autistic is capable, which makes the individual have to try to hide their true self.

Our intense interests can make us unique friends, valued employees, and overall cool people!  Our stims can bring intense joy or a sense of comfort when anxious.  When someone in the autistic community is in some sort of trouble or something terrible has happened, other autistics get the word out and our community bands together to each help in our own unique way.

I have learned a lot from my fellow autistic bloggers in the past few years.  In the past, while I was fine with being autistic and with my teenager being autistic, I was just that- fine with it.  Now, I have a new community which is autistic like me.  A community which for the most part looks out for one another.  I'm a proud openly autistic person who is proud to be part of the autistic community and I am more than fine with that!

photo reads Autistic Pride