Do not force our queer identity to erase our Neurodivergent voices

We want to take this quick moment to acknowledge that Neuro Pride Ireland is not exclusively for LGBTQIAP+ Neurodivergent people.

Neuro Pride Ireland is a space for all Neurodivergent adults** regardless of attraction or gender.

However, we recognise there is a big overlap between the two communities, which is why we have been so thrilled to be asked to work with different prides helping them to make their events more accessible. We are also happy to be able to provide Neuro-Affirmative Spaces at several Prides Across Ireland

** We also run events that are family-friendly and events specifically aimed at under-18s.

This speech was given at Pride of the Déise on 3rd June 2023.

Thank you for inviting us to be part of the Pride celebrations today. I, like the rest of Neuro Pride Ireland co-founders, identify as queer. As a Queer Neurodivergent person, I want to take this moment to thank Pride of the Déise for taking steps to embrace the Neuroqueers of our overlapping communities.

I'm sure, we can all agree that being seen and included in a community can change your life.?But creating communities where everyone is embraced and valued for their authentic, complex, multifaceted selves can change the world.?

You may not know this but between 1 in 3 and 1 in 4 members of the LGBTQIA+ community are disabled, however, we are regularly expected to leave these parts of our identities at the door when entering queer spaces, just like other multiply marginalised community members often have to do. That's why it has been heartening and empowering to see the queer community begin to step up to the promise it holds, to not just tolerate difference, but to celebrate diversity.

When we started Neuro Pride, we drew inspiration and courage from the history, struggle and overcoming of the LGBTQIA+ community. We are very conscious that a significant proportion of our members also fall under the rainbow banner. The similarities as well as the overlap of the Neurodivergent, disabled and lgbtqia+ communities can not be denied. Our Queer siblings also know what it’s like to be medicalised and pathologized for an integral part of who we are, to be treated as deviant and forcibly normalised. To watch every word and gesture, to make sure you don’t give yourself away as ‘different’.

At Neuro Pride Ireland we wanted to create a space where we, and our Neurodivergent peers, could be ourselves freely and authentically, whatever our neurotype. Neurodivergent people have our own styles of communication, unique ways of experiencing the world and a rich and growing culture. Outrageously we are told by the world from birth to feel ashamed of not being neurotypical. We are criticised for not showing our love and our joy, and our fear and our anger, in neurotypical ways. But thankfully more and more of us refuse to accept shame as our birthright. We are proud of our community and our differences. At Neuro Pride Ireland we are often humbled as several of our members cry at their first event because it’s the first time in their lives they felt they could truly be themselves without fear or shame. Some of these members are young adults but the most empowering moments of validation come from those in their 60s crying as they get to embrace their wonderful selves for the first time.

Community to us is of utmost importance. Community is recognition and belonging, it is healing and empowerment and it is also a foundation from which we can fight back against injustice, inequality and shame.

Sometimes it's easy for some people to forget that disabled queers exist. And many of us don't know that some members of our disabled community still don’t have an equal right to marry the person they love, to start a family or to access gender-affirming healthcare because of their identity. But we in the LGBTQIA+ community don’t talk about this, we don’t raise an outcry and we don’t make a fuss. Because it’s not specifically targeted at the queer part of their identities, we tell ourselves it's not our fight. We go along with the narrative that it is acceptable for disabled members of our community to be discriminated against because it’s “in their best interests".We forget “Love is Love'' and “Queer Rights are Human Rights'' when confronted with a body or mind that works differently from the perceived norm.?

Disabled people aren’t inherently vulnerable and we don’t have different needs; we are made vulnerable by being disempowered and we are othered so our needs - and our rights - can continue to be denied.?

Autistic trans people will still be denied gender-affirming care, and queer wheelchair users the right to adopt. I know the move to pass a ban on LGBTQ+ Conversion Therapy this year is warmly welcomed, but please remember your Neurodivergent community members will still be in danger from conversion practices dressed up as behavioural therapies in our schools, our health services and even the homes we live in. These practices were created by the same people in parallel with queer conversion therapy, and will continue to claim the lives of queer young people and cause most who survive it, c-PTSD.

We will continue to be forced into the shadows, unseen and unfought for, unless you help us shine a light on these injustices. Let us the LGBTQAI+ community continue to be a community that fights for the equality of all its members, not just during Neuro Pride, not just on one day of the year. Because the exclusion, violence and inequality we experience affect our community every day. Let's continue to fight back against those who say there is only one right way to exist in this world. None of us exist in a singularity. Do not force our queer identity to erase our Neurodivergent voices. Add your voice to the cries of those least heard.

We're here, we're queer. Now is the time to stand with us.