This is my proposal for a Disability Pride Flag

[capri0mni]

[Image description: A black flag diagonally crossed from the top of the hoist to the bottom of the fly by a four-color "Lightning bolt" in stripes of blue, gold, green and red (three long sections running from hoist to fly, alternating with two short sections from fly to hoist), Description ends]

My “Artist’s Statement” about this Flag:

1) The black field:

Black has three significant meanings:

First: the color of mourning for all those disabled people who have been murdered in the name of “mercy.”

Second: the color of the pirates’ “Jolly Roger” flag, representing our determination to steal our lives back from those public (and private) ‘authorities,’ who use their power in an attempt keep us marginalized.

Third: A reference to the Nazi Black Triangle badge, which was used to identify those whom the Nazis considered “antisocial“ and which has been adopted in Britain to protest the government’s austerity measures against the Disabled.

2) The “Lightning Bolt” motif:

Diagonal lines have been traditionally used in the flags of former colonies, to represent breaking free from colonial powers (empire nations tend to have flags dominated by horizontal and vertical lines). And Disabled people’s lives have long been ‘colonized’ by the medical, religious, and educational establishments.

The zigzag shape represents how the Disabled people must continually navigate around the structural and attitudinal barriers erected throughout normate society, and also the creative, ‘lateral,’ thinking we have to use to solve problems each day.

3) The individual colors represent broad categories of disabilities:

Blue: mental illness disabilities

Yellow: Cognitive and intellectual disabilities

Green: Sensory perception disabilities

Red: Physical disabilities

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So -- would you fly this flag? I really am curious.

Comments

[alatefeline]

Yes. Yes I would, although I'm not certain I have the right to do so (I don't knows if I can call myself disabled if I've been stealth about my autism at every job I've ever had and still managed to work full time). But your explanations really spoke to me.

[capri0mni]

Oh, my dear purr person:

You have the right. Whether it is safe for you to voice that right, right now is another matter.

But Autism is a real disability (it's the gold streak, right there), and the fact that you have to be stealthy about it out of fear of losing your job is evidence of how our lives are colonized.

So you bet your bippy you have the right.

[alatefeline]

*purrs thoughtfully*

I came back to this this morning panicking and thinking about explaining myself out of existence. Thank you.

[capri0mni]

^^^That^^^ is why we absolutely need to normalize the idea of "Disability Pride."

(*Scritches in your favorite spot*)

[alatefeline]

*listening*

(*purrs and nudges to thank you for skritches*)

[capri0mni]

^_^

Here's one of the best arguments in defense of "Disability Pride" I've ever come across:

Blogging Against Disablism Day 2012: A recall to pride (YouTube)

[maramcreates]

I'm seconding capri0mni's response to you. You absolutely have the right to claim the identity, and no one can tell you any different.

[alatefeline]

*purrs thoughtfully*