How you can celebrate disability pride every single day!
July was Disability Pride Month! But that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate Disability Pride long after July is over. So, for this instalment of Caring About Sex and Disability, I wanted to explore some of the ways that YOU, whether you are disabled or not, can honour and celebrate Disability Pride every single day! Let’s crack on into it, friends!
1. Show disability pride by letting your disability anger show
As a disabled person, while I love being disabled in so many ways, there are also myriad ways that I can’t stand being disabled (there’s a joke in there somewhere). I find Disability Pride to be both beautiful and triggering because often I am angry about some aspect of disability. Whether that be inaccessible transit or the fact that I can’t go on dates, it pisses me off. I suggest that you show off your anger about disability as a way to honour the hard parts of being disabled. You’re allowed to have a complex myriad of feelings around disability, and part of being proud is letting that anger around inaccessibility and ableism surge through you, no matter what time of year it is. Being proud means loving disability, not always liking it, and that’s okay!
2. Show disability pride by advocating for sex work & pleasure to be part of disability justice
Last month, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Australia, Bill Shorten, advocated for cutting funding for the use of sex workers from the NDIS. He said that, in his time, he had only seen two requests for sex workers as part of the scheme and that it didn’t pass the test of being a viable use of NDIS funding. Naturally, this stance was made by a non-disabled person who has no clue how important this funding actually is. One way you can show Disability Pride is by highlighting the importance of pleasure and sexuality in disabled people’s lives – talk about the ways you experience pleasure as a disabled person, and dispel the myth that Disability Pride can’t also be sexy as f*ck. You can even address this with the team at Care Rehab, as they can work with you to find how pleasure and Pride go together for you!
3. Have a disabled dance party & connect to disabled joy
So much of Disability Pride Month is a fight for recognition, and while that is important, I also think we need and deserve fun. One way to do this is to have a dance party with other disabled friends. Maybe it’s a small march down your side street to celebrate disability. Or perhaps you get the crip crew together, have a barbecue, and share stories about disabled resilience. So much of disability is steeped in grief, that when we can, finding disabled joy is a gift. Get some Disability Pride flags, drape them across your mobility aids, and go to town! We need more disability dance parties so we can dance out some of the ableism we encounter and reconnect with the sparks of disabled fun that we may rarely get to access. Dance it out!
4. Find ways to make disability part of the conversation
Talk about disability and accessibility to anyone who will listen, and do it often—every single day if you are able. Start a podcast. Write a blog. Host a disability movie night. Start a disability support group. The more we can talk about disability to everyone around us and normalise our existence through community, the better off we’ll be.
Happy Disability Pride! I hope this list gave you some context and ideas to make Disability Pride a part of your life no matter what month it is. Disability Pride should be something we feel every day, and hopefully these tips give you a great jumping-off point to put Disability Pride into your lives. I’d love to know how you feel proud to be disabled, and in what ways you celebrate your Pride! Let me know in the comments.
Until next time!
Andrew Gurza