Why Did Nobody Give a Fuck About Disability Pride Month?

Make it stand out

June is LGBTQIA+ Pride month - but you probably know that already, unless you have been living  under a rock . It is everywhere. Some claim that the month, which began to  commemorate the month of June - the month when the Stonewall riots took place - has lost some  of its impact nowadays. What started as a celebration of queer culture has become too corporate.  Brands are quick to add a rainbow to their logo and are equally as quick to take it down again  when the 1st July rolls around. 

Whatever your view on Pride is, you have undoubtedly heard of it. But what do you know about Disability Pride Month? Disability Pride started out as one day and is now a month long celebration  commemorating the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in July 1990 – a  groundbreaking civil rights law prohibiting discrimination against disabled people. Now, in the UK  and worldwide, disabled people take the month of July to share the pride we feel and work  towards ending any stigma. We even have our own flag - but could you tell me what it looks like?

Disability Pride Month is relatively unknown in the UK: A fellow disabled model Lucy Dawson that I am  friends with has a large following on social media asked a number of brands if they were going to  be doing anything for Disability Pride Month. She had three positive responses - from Hunkemoller, PLT and Love Honey.

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Filled with righteous anger, I conducted some very scientific research into this - a poll on Twitter. I was surprised to learn that 18.2% of disabled people have not even heard of Disability Pride Month. I was surprised to learn that 22.2% of non disabled people have heard of Disability Pride Month. I was even more surprised to learn that 18.2% of disabled people have not heard of Disbility Pride Month.

“The message was loud and clear - we might not be  prioritised in the mainstream but we are going to make sure that we are visible nonetheless.”

It is so easy to make comparisons between the popularity LGBTQIA+ Pride Month and Disability Pride Month,  but we must not forget the intersectionality between the two. Anna is a lesbian and has ehlers-danlos syndrome. She uses a wheelchair sometimes and mobility aids at other times: “I don't really see them [disability and  sexuality] as intertwining, they're both just part of me.”

Anna wasn’t aware of Disability Pride Month until recently. She explained, “I do celebrate Pride month but I didn't even know disability pride was a thing until a few weeks ago, and haven't heard of any  events to celebrate it - especially not locally or semi-locally.” 

Fran, who is also a lesbian, a wheelchair user and experiences chronic illness and chronic pain, echoes the same sentiment, “I used to be a regular Pride attender, but less so now. I would love to have been involved more in disability pride, but have little opportunity to do so.” She continues, “We need more awareness and visibility for disability pride, but that won’t happen without funding.”

Still, it seems disabled content creators are taking matters into their own hands and raising  awareness of Disability Pride Month - albeit (and unfortunately) without being paid. Throughout July, my Instagram feed was filled with videos and photos of disabled people living their best lives and making sure others knew that it was Disability Pride Month. On TikTok too - which has been  challenged over its ableist blocking of disabled people’s content - highlighted #DisabilityPride on  its Explore page, with over 275 million views. The message was loud and clear - we might not be  prioritised in the mainstream but we are going to make sure that we are visible nonetheless.  

“I think people expect us to be meek and quiet and sad about our disabilities and that being proud of them is strange,'' said Anna. “But in the same way as being proud of our sexuality, why can't we be proud of our disability? It's part of us too, and because of society, another difficult thing that we have to navigate through.”

At the end of the day, you can show that you are proud to be disabled any time of the year - it  shouldn’t be limited to just one month. The past eighteen months it has been difficult and  downright dangerous to be a disabled person. The coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately  affected us compared to non disabled people. But we have plenty of things to celebrate within the disabled community nonetheless. That being said, it would be great if next year more people gave a f*** about  Disability Pride Month.

Words: Meg Fozzard | Illustrator: Kerry Squires