What about moving the date of Autistic Pride Day to fall within Autism Awareness week? May 14th-20th. Have it on May 18th instead. I don't understand why it is falling on June 18th, having it on gay pride day which only causes confustion and makes it much harder to get publicity when other events will be going on which the media will be focusing more on.
And I've noticed from some messages, a number of aspies do not approve of being gay.
I thhink the 18th is fine
in san fracisco it is june 25.
toronto Ca is june 21
wash dc black pride may 27
Firstly it isnt gay pride day, gay pride day does not have a set day each year, it is usually a few days or a week of events, around the beginning of june, if you google you will see lots of dates for it, in varying areas.
If it is based during the NT parent established "official week" that will do more harm than good. Also these weeks and months are different in other countries too!
In the US april is autism awareness month, and in the UK it is october for autism awareness month. The kind of media coverage during this time is often negative with an extreme bias on helping very young kids with autism.
It would be like having gay pride day during a "cure gayness month"!!!!!
Autistic pride day is listed on many calendars across the internet, and it is not listed alongside gay pride day, in fact it seems the only thing it would clash with is Wimbledon. And that is only this year, as the day of the week will change each year.
If it clashed with a Grand Prix or significant motorsport event then I'd be a little irate but one day of one Tennis Tournament?- sorry any tennis fans who are here but it's no bother for me. Although if it was finals then I'd understand a lot more.
As it stands moving the date would create more problems then it would solve as some people (me being one of them) may not be able to set up or work on events
I vote NO!
May 18th wouldn't give organizers enough time to get ready. I have a writing challenge for stories to be posted June 18th, and I don't want to have to rush the writers to get finished a month earlier. Anyway, changing the date so close to the event would make AFF look disorganized and unsure of itself.
I vote YES - it should have its own date - unassociated to anything.
I feel this way for 2 reasons:
1. Taking place on the same day as Gay Pride Day leaves little room for press, media coverage and exposure to the public for heightened awareness - which is REALLY CRITICAL. Some people who are on the autism spectrum might also be gay - but not all gay people are on the autism spectrum. It's really IMPORTANT to help those who know nothing about autism spectrum disorders to better understand what they are. Knowledge is a VERY powerful tool.
2. Autism Awareness week is is a very effective tool for beginning to educate the public about autism in the way it sponsors all sorts of educational, development, fundraising endeavors to spread the word about this disability. However, it seems to me that its focus is largely on what it is, how to identify it, whose effected, and what can be done to solve the problem. What it's NOT is an affirmation that it's OK to be autistic - and that aspies simply have a different way of looking at the world. The general public HAS NOTHING TO FEAR about aspies - they simply need to understand the way in which we are different.
I think an Autism Pride Day would serve everyone well in having its own single day to help bring attention to the world of aspies and all they have to offer the mediocrity of daily life.
Hi crackerbox, thanks for your giving us your opinion.
I agree that having it in autism awareness week has the potential for it to be "swamped", however in the longer term we hope that the aspies voice will become stronger and stronger. Media coverage in autism awareness week should then start swinging the aspie way, and APD would have a higher chance of becoming known then.
In the mean time I do think it should be held always on a weekend. The weekday is difficult if there are events on and I am at work.
People could easily arrange events for the nearest weekend, as people do with Bonfire Night in the UK, often events are made for the nearest weekend.
If we just called it the first saturday in june, or similar, then it would not get onto calendars in the same way that it has already.
Autism Awareness Day did not happen this year in the UK and I have a feeling that that may be it? As Autistic Pride Day has already happened and it took place on the 18th of June I would leave it at that personally. June is a nice month, usually for weather, so there is more chance of people joining in.
We had a wonderful day here in Sunny Sunderland with our families and we even got a piece in our local rag - so I think that it's great just as it is.
Carole