Following the example of the gay community and the results of the monthly meeting last night, we have decided to hold an annual autistic pride day. The idea behind this event is to show the world that we are not ashamed of who we are and to help further educate the public. Autistic pride day can also be used to help bring autistics/aspies together - we make this day our own!
It will be June 18th every year.
T-Shirt's and other merchandise will be available from the main site soon - any profits raised will go directly towards webhosting costs and any other costs directly related to AFF services/action. The t-shirt design will be available to download from the library for anyone who would prefer to print their own shirt.
We had already made some as samples which we are very happy with, we'll take a photo and post it so people can give opinions.
It will be available to buy online from the company Cafepress who allow groups to sell items through them for a small profit. That can be set by the group to keep prices reasonable.
We will also make a logo available for anyone who wants to download it print their own at home.
Had'ne really thought about that yet, we have discussed a bracelet in the General section, you know the band type.
We are currently working on an information site for Autistic pride day.
This will show people what its all about, and can tell people about various events being organized.
It will be at
http://www.autisticprideday.com currently still being made.
Well it may be that date in North America, but I have never heard of that exact date, so it may be different in other parts of the world.
APD is a global event, so I don't think it will matter too much.
The spectrum colours are used to represent the autism spectrum. A gay symbol is also the pink triangle, I remember when that was used, and when the rainbow started to be used, it could change again possibly to something else. Most people think of autism with that horrible puzzle jigsaw thing, so we definetely need something different from that.
Using spectrum colours has been in use for a while for autism on autistic sites, not NT parent sites.
The reason we chose June 18th was it was our youngest member's birthday, he is 10. Since then we have found we have four members with the same birthday, so thats cool too. :smile:
About the date, there are numerous dates that we were aware of that we wanted to avoid, such as autism awareness month in april in the USA. The same for autism awareness month in October in the UK. These are dominated by NT parents and theres a lot of negative media attention from that. Some items are positive, but Autistic pride day should be all positive, at least one day to celebrate, relax and enjoy who we are, without it being taken over.
You can buy t-shirts from the APD site that have Autistic Pride on, and the infinity symbol, so that should distinguish it from Gay Pride. The wording is quite clear.
The AFF logo is available to download in the library section for anyone who wants to use it to print onto a t-shirt or other item, for non-profit purposes of course.
Well I had a quick google and it seems that gay pride week is at the beginning of june. The spectrum of colours used for autism representation is usually more graduated than the gay pride rainbow flag, which sometimes just has five colours, also the autism spectrum colours are more pastel type often.
If they think its gay autistic pride, and you are gay, and autistic, thats cool too. :smile:
This year will be smaller personal events as it is a brand new concept to people. It should be bigger next year, schools can get involved, and students, aswell as families.
I dont agree, there are lots of kids with autism who do have parents who aren't curebies (they are out there) they would probably be happy to arrange events for families, that individuals could join in with.
Kid aspies of today are the adult aspies of tomorrow :grin:
As far as I know, kids are under 16 and adults are 16 and over. If you mean that those 13 - 21 are being ignored, they have the same possibility to enjoy APD as anyone else.
Kev who posts here is a great example of a non-curebie NT parent, he could inspire parents in a similar position, maybe he'll start a group....
It could be worth trying, it could at least get their attention and spark interest.
Kev said "In these cases I'd like to not judge but reeducate them patiently and kindly."
I totally agree, to individuals its important to educate them, any hostility alienates them, and they retreat.
However for groups as a whole, such as CAN, I do believe that the facts can be clearly spelled out, politely, but emphatically.
I think traits in parents must be an important factor in the whole genetic scheme of things.
If Kev did a group/site and found a way of presenting this to parents so that they would not be scared off by the idea, but could learn from it, it would be marvellous.