Autistic Pride Day – 18th June
What is it?
Autistic Pride Day is an opportunity to celebrate what is means to be autistic. Whilst recognising the challenges that come with being autistic, Autistic Pride Day is an opportunity for autistic and non-autistic people alike to recognise the many skillsets that autistic people bring to our society, and to acknowledge the barriers that may hinder success.
There is still a long way to go when considering the ‘celebration’ of autistic people. The statistics about the autistic experience remain dreary:
- Only 30% of autistic people have any kind of employment
- Autistic children are three times more likely to be excluded from school
- 80% of autistic people have mental health challenges.
But with growing awareness, acceptance and indeed, celebration, it’s hoped that attitudes and understanding about autism can change.
Autistic Pride Day provides us with an opportunity to reflect on our attitudes towards autism, the lack of available supports within our organisations and to consider how we might better support the autistic people in our lives.
Have you ever considered some of the simple ways you could accommodate the autistic people in your lives:
- Setting clear expectations – about tasks, roles, social requirements.
- Managing the environment – consider lighting, sound, smell and temperature. Consider noise cancelling headphones or working from home.
- Provide both routine and flexibility – have set tasks each / day week but allow for a degree of flexibility should the person needs recovery time.
- Be available – for clarifying questions, opportunities to check-in, reassurance.
In order to ‘take pride’ in being autistic, it’s important to recognise that accommodations will be needed.
In recent years, it’s believed 1 in 70 people are autistic, and with growing awareness of brain differences and wider neurodivergence, it is likely that our perspectives of the ‘autistic experience’ will continue to grow with awareness and knowledge.
Connection to Pride Month
It does not go unnoticed that Autistic Pride Day is during Pride Month. There is a huge intersection between autistic people and the LGBTQIA+ community. With more and more research being done into the experiences of sexually, romantically and gender diverse autistic people, it is important to also celebrate this interaction as part of Autistic Pride Day.
Stats:
Though there are thousands of stories, blogs, and conversations being had online about the experiences of sexually, romantically and gender diverse autistic people, the research into the significance of this intersection has remained sparse until recent years:
Sexual / romantic diversity:
- Between 42-69% of autistic people identify as LGBTQ+
- Autistic adults are 8 times more likely to identify as asexual
- Autistic males are 3.5 times more likely to identify as bisexual
- Autistic females are 3 times more likely to identify as gay
(University of Cambridge, 2021)
Transgender and gender diverse:
- Autistic people are three times more likely to identify as transgender or gender diverse.
- One issue that should be highlighted in the current political and social climate is the growing amount of autistic young people (in particular) experiencing significant barriers towards gender-affirming healthcare.
- Warrier (2020) found that one third of respondents in their research study stated that their gender identity was repeatedly questioned due to being autistic. This continues to be documented in a vast amount of research studies: Shapira and Granek (2019); Moore et al. (2022); Cooper et al. (2022); Wallisch et al. (2023); Bouzy et al. (2023).
- Trans and gender diverse autistic people are also at a significant risk of discrimination and harassment (Bouzy et al., 2023).
- As a result, it is noted that depression and anxiety is observed at an extremely high rate in autistic-trans individuals (Murphy et al., 2020).
Read our Pride blogs to learn more about how to support neurodivergent people who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community:
Read about the work we have done with The Proud Trust to celebrate neurodivergent / autistic pride: https://www.creasedpuddle.co.uk/case-studies/the-proud-trust/