ASAN-Central Ohio celebrates Autistic Pride Day

On Saturday, June 19, ASAN-Central Ohio marched in the Columbus Pride parade. Marchers included Noranne Cochran, Justin Rooney, and Whitney Brooks.

 Justin, Noranne, and Whitney hold signs

Before the parade, members distributed autistic pride buttons to the crowds and received a good deal of positive response from autistic people and family members in attendance. During the parade, ASAN members held signs that read Autistic Pride, Autistic and Proud, Autistics 4 LGTBQ, and Diversity of All Colors. According to Stonewall Columbus, over 195,000 people were in attendance at the event.

Noranne talks with the crowd

Noranne and Justin hold up signs

Stephanie Ballam, Jeffrey Strasser, and Melanie Yergeau also participated in the event planning, as well as in the creation of the signs and buttons.

 Designing posters and buttons for APD

Autistic Pride buttons

To view more photos, please visit our Flickr site.

Autistic Pride Day: Recap, Photos

Note: APD is typically held on June 18.

Eight ASAN members, led by ASAN Central Ohio Chapter Director Melanie Yergeau, celebrated Autistic Pride Day 2009 by visiting the Ohio statehouse on June 17, 2009 and meeting with two state representatives, Rep. Kevin Bacon and Rep. Ted Celeste. The group handed out flyers and briefly explained the goals and work of ASAN.

Several people shared stories about employment, education, and community living supports during the meeting with Rep. Bacon. Melanie Yergeau explained to him that ASAN is very ideologically different from Autism Speaks. Autistic culture also was discussed and compared to other disability communities, such as Deaf culture.

The meeting with Rep. Celeste began with a discussion of the social model of disability and ASAN's participation in cross-disability communities. Rep. Celeste talked about autism insurance and was knowledgeable about ABA and the issue of excluding aversives from coverage. He thanked the group for bringing this issue to his attention. ASAN plans to follow up by sending him relevant literature and studies on aversives.

ASAN's meeting with Rep. Kevin Bacon

ASAN's meeting with Rep. Ted Celeste

ASAN at the state house