Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Importance of "Disability Pride"



Tonight while eyeball waddling through the public wonderfucks of facebook I came across a post on the “Disability Pride Philadelphia’s page.  The admins unearthed an article written by accredited internet guest blogger Edward J. Heaton, titled “stupidity rolls on”, the level of profound intellect of content could be grasped within the first sentence:

“Just what the !#$(@#$?! is “Disability Pride” and, more importantly, why should we be throwing a parade for it?”

Heaton’s dispute is that a positive event such as a parade or festival should not be held for a negative aspect of a person’s life, supporting his argument purely on semantics of the word “disability”.  What I find funny is that myself and friends have said pretty much the same thing:

“Am I really “proud” to be disabled???”

As much as we’ve said that, we’ve never argued that they should cut funding and not celebrate.  That’s like saying “Our lives suck, so no matter what, we shouldn’t try to lighten up and have fun.”

Another conclusion that Heaton puts forth is that since there are so many cross disabilities, having an event for all of them together is futile because there is no “commonality”.  Many agree with him;  and there are not many general broad spectrum “disability” events being held.  Possibly unrelated, but there are also no big wave united movements going on presently to change barriers that all of us with disabilities must face, especially oppression on the social and socio-economic sub-levels of living.  We are the largest minority, and we are the most persecuted.  Overcoming suffering together is way more bonding than sharing a favorite sports team or a dislike of the Twilight series.  Also, saying that because there are different disabilities that they don’t belong in the same festival is like saying that Latin Pride Philadelphia has too many different countries involved for everyone to be considered the same ethnicity. Just because individuals do not share a culture does not mean they do not belong to the same community. 

You might be thinking that I’m biased and writing all this because my band got to perform at Disability Pride Philadelphia, and afterward was asked to play at Disability Pride New Jersey.  Well, you’re totally right.  Do you know how many people with disabilities turn to art and music for coping?  Many.  Do you know how many venues there are accepting to disabled artists? Almost none. When we play at local bars and music places around Philadelphia people either stare at me like a make-a-wish alien or drink away their attention and get angry that I’m not performing Pat Benetar covers.  Stages aren’t even wheelchair accessible, I have to be helped onstage for every show.  Not only having an accessible accepting venue to play at, but one where there’s going to be a large crowd of folks who can fully appreciate what you are doing is a super-yay for the talented creatives of crippledom.

Ok, but what is the point of a parade? 

I’d love to go on a profound literary march here, but I think it’s stated best with just saying: parades are fun; we need fun shit to do. 

Heaton says

“When I was growing up in the 1960s and ‘70s, there was no such thing as “Disability Pride”. What I and my compatriots growing up have pride in was achievement in spite of the disability.”

I totally agree.  There’s no pride in adult diapers and medicine pumps. We need not to focus on the disability itself, and perceive this as a just celebration of life. 

Unfortunately “achievement in spite of a disability” does not fit as well on a t-shirt,

just sayin,

and just because it doesn’t, doesn’t mean that it does not deserve funding and appreciation.


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