Aspies For Freedom

Autistic Pride - Great idea!
A question - will you be making any T-shirts with just the AFF Logo ?

Thrillseeker.

I don't mean to criticise the idea of an Autistic Pride Day, but I'd just like to mention another annual "day". In Australia we have Harmony Day and some kind of multicultural week in March, and it is supposed to be a celebration of cultural diversity and school kids dress up in national costumes. There are other days associated with indigenous people. I know that Autistic Pride Day is a different day, and I think the gay people do their marching around Mardi Gras, but I would love to see cultural diversity, neurodiversity and sexual diversity and any other kind of human diversity all celebrated on one big "Diversity Day". I don't think the idea of lumping the three ideas together is suspect, because if you think about autism and sexual diversity, one can't really say with any confidence that either thing is solely cultural or biological or neurological. Probably won't ever happen, I know.

I think we're more likely to get noticed if we have our own Autistic Pride day, Lili Marlene, and right now we need as much public visibility as we can get.  Society hasn't even reached the point of being aware that large numbers of intelligent and capable autistic people exist, and we know what's going to happen if we don't raise their awareness before a prenatal test becomes available.

Of course, if anyone here has the opportunity to take part in a diversity event, that would help too, but mixed events shouldn't be our main focus at this time.

We probably would get noticed more if we had our own "day" for our own issue. Those coulorful gay people would surely steal the show. :smile:

I still like the idea of a Diversity Day (to include disabled people too), though, because I think it would force everyone to realise that tolerance and understanding isn't a thing that one can have toward one group in society and not another, and still have any credibility. I know that some aspies have very rough attitudes towards homosexual people, but they ask society to accept their own eccentricities and differences. This just isn't going to work. If we had a Diversity Day, it would force people to realise that they can't expect their own ability or ethnic or sexual or neurological differences to be respected unless they reciprocate.

A superb and positive idea. I really hope it takes off. Anything I can do to help I will.

In Australia rainbows seem to be the latest fashion colour. I'm not sure why. I absolutely adore looking at the rainbow colours, but I have noticed that sometimes when I wear stuff decorated with a rainbow motif I do seem to attract looks from cross-gender-looking folks. So I would suggest to anyone who does not want to use the spectrum of colours for fear of being mistaken for a gay person, they might instead use the infinity symbol that the AFF have used as a symbol for AS. Ask Amy or Gareth what the infinity symbol is all about.

I think in Australia the G&L community do their big parades around the date of Mardi Gras which is the beginning of Lent or something, so I don't think there's any conflict between weeks in Australia.

Just call it Diversity Week! :grin:  :wink:

I don't think there will be loads of interest in the Netherlands for APD as a bit of a party day, I posted it on a large autism-related forum (i'm the admin there) and the only thing we could come up with is to arrange the meeting at that date. Would be cool to do something a bit bigger-- maybe a more centralized thing in London, or Amsterdam for that matter (since in Amsterdam it just doesn't matter if you're 'different', gay or otherwise )

I'd find it no problem to travel to the UK to be there, although Amsterdam is more of my home soil for that matter. A DJ or music performance was already discussed in another forum and could be a very good idea. Maybe reading of poems and other fiction is a good one as well. Just try to tell the world what a wonderful bunch of people we all are.

That means it'll probably stick to a lot of forum meetings everwhere in the world, since most Aspies have met and are making contact online...

OK, but speaking for the ADULT Aspies only here... I can't say anything about parents with children simply because I'm not. That sure doesn't mean we shouldn't consider them, indeed.

Amy wrote

Maybe they should form a group and call themselves "Parents who aren't curebies"?  :smile:

With regard to the question of what to do on the day (or around the day), what does everyone think of the idea of raising awareness of the idea of autistic/aspie pride and human rights for autistics in universities?

It's easy enough to pin up some posters on notice boards in universities. The university students of today are the parents and professionals and decision makers of tomorrow. And universities have aspies working and studying inside their walls.

We need to make more people aware that "cure" isn't really the issue here.  Many parents are being misled into thinking that their donations to research-funding groups will result in a cure, although the actual goal of autism research is prenatal testing and abortion.

I want to see groups with names like Parents Against Eugenics.

I doubt that any person, except the most scientifically illiterate or foolish, believes that autists can be genuinely cured, unless you're only talking about taking autistic people and pickling them in brine.  :smile: Having said that I wouldn't rule out the possibility that some less ethical clinicians might wish to try out "cures" that would be horribly damaging. One only needs to look back at the not-too-distant history of psychosurgery to see what can happen when unethical and incompetent clinicians are given a free rein.

Back to the issue of Autistic Pride Day. If one was to contact a media organisation to ask them what they are doing for Autistic Pride Day, are there really any existing movies or documentaries that can be screened that give a positive or neutral view of autism/aspergers? I think a couple of years ago 60 Minutes in Australia did a story on Aspergers, which I never saw, but which seemed fairly positive from the story transcript. Are there any other TV stories or documentaries that give a positive view of autism that one could ask TV stations to air?

I am seriously thinking about it. If I did I'd call it simply 'Parents of Autistics'. I'd want it to be a point of reference for parents who've just recieved diagnosis and even those parents who suspect (for whatever reason) their child might be autistic.

I want to reach them before the cure groups can get their talons into them so I'd like a site that discusses the practicalities of parenting an autistic child (e.g getting a Statment of Needs) as well as frankly discusses the misguided agendas of the CAN/DAN/NAAR/GR of this world. Above all I'd want it to be a place where autism is accepted for just what it is - a difference.

That would mean of course that we would have a high percentage of parents coming to the site who would believe they were suffering and that their child was 'lost' or 'gone' or part of an 'epidemic'. In these cases I'd like to not judge but reeducate them patiently and kindly. I'd hope to encourage these parents to speak to autistics instead of just professionals. Of course I'd promote the inclusion of parents who *were* autistic as well as those who parent autistics.

However, as ever, life intrudes - my wife's due to give birth to our 3rd child next month and I've no doubt I'll be lessening my involvement in order to deal with thid change but this group is definitely something I want to set up as I believe its a vital cause. The best way we can help autistics to feel accepted is to educate their parents.

Maybe if Kev sets up a group, would it be a good idea to publicise the idea of the Broader Autistic Phenotype? As people can possibly tell from my previous posts, I believe the autism genes have very important positive effects, which are sometimes most obvious when expressed in individuals who are somewhere between diagnosably autistic and NT on the spectrum. I can tell from Kev's web site that he is a smart guy and a logical thinker, and I wouldn't be surprised if there is a link between those characteristics and autism genes.

I also think it would be a good thing for parents of autistic kids who have some autistic traits themselves to recognise and accept or deal with their own autistic traits. I know from personal experience that people who hate some of their own characteristics often unconsciously victimise other people who display their own despised characteristics.