Who Am I?

Autistic Pride Day

Posted: June 18th, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Autism | Tags: , , | Comments Off on Autistic Pride Day

Autistic Pride DayApparently June is Autism Acceptance Month and June 18 is Autistic Pride Day. To be honest, I’ve barely started processing my reaction to my diagnosis. I’m not sure how to react to a Pride Day. As an older, white, mostly cishet male I’ve never had one before. Or, as the joke goes, every day is a white male pride day.

I’m certainly not ashamed of my diagnosis. It’s simply a central facet of who I am. My brain apparently really does function differently than the more typical human brain. I’m also pretty well established in life and have a lot of privilege from my other descriptive categories. But I do want to get to better know and understand myself and my fellow autistics. I expect that to be an ongoing process. And I want to offer back what I can, though I hardly know what that might at the moment.

While I can’t claim to have processed my own reaction, I did want to post something today once I realized what it was. It is, after all, my first Pride Day since being diagnosed.