Disability Pride is something I think about frequently. As someone who has attended her fair share of pride parades, the concept of pride in difference is not something that is foreign to me. However, growing up in an ableist world, when I was first introduced to the concept of disability pride it almost seemed absurd. As we tend to view disability as always a negative, it seems like a foreign concept. However, when I read No Pity by Joseph P. Shapiro, my perspective started to change. I began to see disability as part of human diversity, before I even identified myself as disabled.
When I was diagnosed with a learning disability in my mid teens, it was like my life finally made sense. Although I was bullied for it and suffered from a lot of shame because of it, I also had the idea that I was no better or worse than someone else, just different with a brain that works in its own unique way. When I started getting sick soon after, it was harder to reconcile that with being part of human diversity when all I wanted was to be out of pain. When I got one diagnosis (fibromyalgia), and later another (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome), my life made sense yet again. With Ehlers-Danlos being a genetic condition that effects every part of my body, there was this sense that this is who I am. Nothing in the near future is going to change it, I might as well have pride in who I am, the way I was made.
It's important not to confuse pride with a statement that my life is painless, or without hardship. I do suffer from chronic pain, my life has its difficult moments and sometimes those are above and beyond the hardship of living in an ableist world. However, to me, pride means the radical idea that I am okay, just as I am. I don't have to be cured to be a human being worth of dignity and respect. I am part of a diverse society with my own unique differences and challenges, just as everyone else.
As a Unitarian Universalist who also believes in God, my own spiritual beliefs affirm the worth and dignity of every person. That includes people with disabilities. I also believe in a God who created people in God's own image. That includes disability. I don't mean to get preachy but my beliefs not only allow me to have pride; they remind me that I deserve nothing less.
Will there be a cure in my lifetime? I don't know. All I know is that I have the body I have, for better or for worse; I might as well learn to love it.
"You get proud by practicing." - Laura Hershey
