10 Reasons We Need Autistic Pride

Autistic Pride isn’t just about celebrating who we are. It’s also about coming together, remembering those we’ve lost, and working together towards a brighter future for future generations.

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June 18th is Autistic Pride Day, within Queer Pride Month.

These are independent events. Autistic Pride Day is not a pride only for Queer Autistic People -just for the record (because that question has been asked before).

What is Autistic Pride Day and why is this a thing?

Being Autistic is, unfortunately, something that society, much like being queer, has deemed is “less than desirable.”

Those who don’t understand Autistic Pride might ask, “How can you be proud of something you have no control over– like Autism?”

Autistic Pride Day was not borne from the need to celebrate being Autistic, but instead in recognition of our right to live authentically (or at all).

The Autistic experience colors each piece of an Autistic Person’s personality, sensory experience, and identity. It impacts our interests, how we view the world, the choices we make, and even our ethics.  Because of this, many Autistic People say that “Autism is a part of who we are.”

Autistic Pride Day is not just a celebration of being Autistic and belonging to such a vibrant, beautiful community, but doing so in spite of the messages society sends that we should be ashamed of who we are.

Why do we need autistic pride?

1. There’s nothing bad, or good, or wrong,  or particularly special about being Autistic.

It is just another way of being and existing.

Autism is an explanation for some of the reasons I may do things I do or act the way I act. It is an explanation for me, as a human, and who I am. 

Unfortunately, because society has these, horrific, preconceived notions, of what it means to be Autistic, it leaves those of us who want to have the courage to be proud of who we are in a very difficult place (where it is hard, even frowned upon, to do so).

Often people are telling us that we are broken and should not be proud of ourselves for being Autistic.

2. Our Own Parents are KILLING us

Once a year, the disability community gathers to remember disabled victims of filicide–disabled people murdered by their caregivers.

When an Autistic Person has been killed in this way, the perpetrators of the unspeakable acts are often handled with sympathy and light sentences (assuming they are sentenced), and the murders justified due to the “stress of having a disabled person in the family,” completely ignoring and blaming the true victims.

Autistic Pride is about being defiantly proud, when people are literally trying to prevent us from living.

That is the same (whether you are Queer or Autistic).

Queer kids, are off hurt by their parents (or other people) because of being Queer.

Both groups have hate crimes that are often committed against us (because of invisible differences that we have no control over) - It’s the way we were born.

3. Autistic Camouflaging

There are many parallels between being Autistic and being Queer.

Being out and being authentic as a Queer Person in a world that does not want to accept you as you are (and is trying to squash you for being different) is an act of defiance (very much like being openly Autistic).

We have Queer Pride because the opposite of having pride in your authentic queer identity is being in the closet.

Being in the closet was suffocating, the pressure of blending in and assimilating was crushing.

I can’t go back - into either closet (NeuroDivergent or Queer).

Once you’ve had a taste of being out of the closet, it’s very hard to go back into the closet.

Also, once you’re out, it’s hard to put that information away again (because people know and tend to remember).

Much like being Queer, Autistic People can choose to “come out” and disclose their invisible differences with people in very similar ways (and are sometimes met with disbelief and lots of misunderstanding, when they share this information).

The other parallel, that is very similar between Queer Pride and Autistic Pride, is that being able to be out of the closet (or un-camouflaged and open with one’s Autism) is something that not everyone can do.

People live in closets (or camouflage themselves) because of a lack of safety.

People don’t live in closets and hide their Queerness because they want to be deceptive. They hide their queerness because the people around them are not supportive or safe.

To Disclose or not to Disclose (an Autism Diagnosis)?

Many of us learn to hide our Autistic traits in school (as a way to avoid being picked on by our peers and authority figures).

It’s common for people not to be out in the workplace, for example, because that can risk your job (though, legally, you are supposed to be protected).

Many Autistic and Queer People  live in poverty (making getting those legal protections difficult to acquire).

All over the world, especially within the workplace and in professional settings, many Autistics still feel a strong need to disguise their NeuroType(s) and hide much of who they are (out of fear they will be bullied, fired, or passed over for promotions).

Safety is an issue, that those of us who are able to and, have the privilege of, being able to be open with this information do so, with understanding that there are many people who are still not in a place where they are safe enough to do live openly. 

4. Increased Harassment by Police

Autistic people are often harassed and assaulted by the police who misunderstand their Autistic traits and mannerisms as suspicious (not a crime) or an indication of drug use, like when fourteen-year-old Connor Leibel of Arizona was assaulted by Officer David Grossman (a “drug-recognition expert”) for existing in public while Autistic.

Connor was minding his own business, stimming with a piece of string on a park bench.

In addition to extreme emotional trauma from the unprovoked attack from this tyrant in blue, Connor suffered cuts, bruises, and “scratches to his face, back, and arms from the attack, and a grotesquely swollen ankle which required surgeries.

5. Dangerous Quack “Cures” and Therapies

Due to the negative social perception of Autism, a large number of unethical treatments have flooded the market, including dangerous, non-medically approved therapies based on junk science (such as a bleach solution called MMS, chelation, or even demonic exorcism) – exploiting the fears of worried parents.

If you want to go down a disturbing rabbit hole, Google “Judge Rotenberg Center.” The center is a residential facility in Canton, Massachusetts and is the only “school” (sounds more like a prison to me) in the United States currently using electric skin shocks as punishment for its students. The controversial practice has attracted passionate criticism from disability and human rights groups.

6. Stigma & Pathologizing

The natural mannerisms, habits, movements, and communication styles of Autistic People are often pathologized.

Autistic people are regularly scolded and chastised by the non-autistics around them for expressing themselves in an “Autistic way.”

Nicknames like “weird,” “neurotic,” “difficult,” “rebellious,” “stubborn,” and “sensitive” are common.

7. Autistic Rights to Autonomy

Some of the most vulnerable members of our community have been locked away kept in hospitals miles from home, hidden from the world, restrained, sedated, and secluded.

Sometimes our own parents will take control over our affairs against our wishes. If it happened to Brittany, imagine how easily it can happen to an Autistic Person who doesn’t have a massive following.

Stories of unnecessary use of restraint, over-medication, financial abuse, and seclusion are common.

8. Failures in Public Accessibility

Do you ever arrive at your well-researched destination and walk out quickly after discovering your choice was inaccessible?

When you are checking a new location (like a store, restaurant, or hotel ) do you need to research whether or not the environment will make you physically ill?

As a sensory sensitive Autistic human, I can’t go anywhere without considering the sensory environment I am about to encounter (and the potential consequences from that exposure).

Most modern indoor public spaces are not accessible to people like me.This limits my access to many things.

9. “Autistic” is a Popular Insult

Most people don’t have their NeuroType used as a generic insult to describe anything that is negative.

On the internet, “autism” has gained usage as an insult aimed at mocking people. “You’re so autistic!” or “He’s probably autistic!” are used to mock the people who are the source of ridicule.

“Autistic” should relate to people who experience the world from a different social, sensory, and emotional perspective, but sadly is too often thrown around as a derogatory insult.

10. Lack of Representation in Media

Non-autistic people never have to look far to see themselves in mainstream society and pop-culture.

Autistic characters in pop-culture are often heavily stereotyped, feeling more like a Wikipedia checklist of symptoms than a real person.

When a NeuroDivergent character is written into a script, they are often played by a NeuroTypical person and often feel like a mockery.

Autistic Pride isn’t just about celebrating who we are. It’s also about coming together, remembering those we’ve lost, and working together towards a brighter future for future generations of Autistic and other NeuroDivergent People.

We need Autistic Pride, Queer Pride, or any kind of Pride because all human beings need to be loved and accepted as we are (and not asked to change to be something we’re not) - which includes our gender identities, our sexual orientations, our race, our NeuroDivergences, our strengths, our weaknesses, who we are as the whole person.

Until society stops seeing Autistic People as broken, needing to fix themselves to fit into the non-autistic systems, we will still have this continued need to have Autistic Pride (until Autistic Pride becomes standard).

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~ Lyric Rivera