Disability Pride Parades

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Disability Pride Flag, designed by Ann Magill

Disability Pride Parades are parades held by disabled people.^[1] Disability Pride Parades seek to change the way people think about and define disability, to end the stigma of disability, and to promote the belief that disability is a natural part of human diversity in which people living with disabilities can take pride.^[2]

Disability Pride Parades also usually coincide with Disability Pride Week in the communities where they are held.

History[]

Disability Pride Parade 2011 participants.

The first Disability Pride Day was held in Boston, Massachusetts in 1990. The featured speaker was Karen Thompson, author of Why Can't Sharon Kowalski Come Home? The Boston Disability Pride Parade was held again in 1991, but has not been held since. It ended with the death of lead organizer, Diana Viets, and with the move of co-organizer Catherine Odette to Madison, Wisconsin.

On July 26, 1992 New York City held its first Disability Independence Day March. Congress Member Major Owens was a keynote speaker.^[3] The last Disability Independence Day March was held on July 28, 1996.

The first Chicago Disability Pride Parade was the first Disability Pride Parade in the United States after the Boston-based parades of the 1990s.^[4] It was held on July 18, 2004.^[1]

On July 12, 2015 New York City held its first Disability Pride Parade; Tom Harkin and Mary LeDonne (daughter of Mike LeDonne, Founder/President of Disability Pride NYC ) were its grand marshals.^[5]

Locations[]

Disability Pride Parades have been held many times in many places across the United States.^[6]

Chicago[]

The first Chicago Disability Pride Parade was the first such parade in the United States after the Boston-based parades of the 1990s.^[4] It was held on July 18, 2004, and another Disability Pride Parade has been held in Chicago each subsequent July.^[1] The first Chicago parade was funded with $10,000 in seed money that Sarah Triano received in 2003 as part of the Paul G. Hearne Leadership award from the American Association of People with Disabilities.^[8] According to Triano, fifteen hundred people attended the parade.^[8] Yoshiko Dart was the parade marshal.^[9] The most recent Disability Pride Parade in Chicago was held July 23, 2016.

The Chicago Disability Pride Parade has a theme and a grand marshal each year.

New York City[]

Jazz musician Mike LeDonne's daughter Mary Patterson LeDonne was born in 2004 with multiple disabilities and that was the spark that lit the fire for the Annual Disability Pride NYC Parade. He first started putting together ideas for a Disability Pride Parade in New York City in 2011. He formed a non profit called Disability Pride NYC, Inc. in 2014. That same year the Mayor's Office for People With Disabilities (MOPD) was planning a 25th anniversary of the signing of the ADA (American's with Disabilities Act) celebration and decided to join forces with DPNYC to realize the first annual Disability Pride Parade on July 12, 2015. Some of the seed money for the parade was raised from a Jazz concert called Jazz Legends Play For Disability Pride put on by Mike in which many of the biggest names in Jazz donated their talent for the night. Almost 4,000 people showed up for the first parade which culminated with a celebration featuring the talents of the disability community. There are 2 or 3 Grand Marshals each year, of which Mike's daughter Mary is always 1, and Mayor Bill De Blasio declared July to be Disability Pride Month in New York City.

See Also[]

• Disability flag

References[]

External links[]

• disabilityprideparade.org