Jim Sinclair (activist)
Neurodiversity paradigm |
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Jim Sinclair is an American autistic
Biography
Sinclair has said that they did not speak until age 12.[4] Sinclair was raised as a girl, but describes having an intersex body,[5] and in a 1997 introduction to the Intersex Society of North America, Sinclair wrote, "I remain openly and proudly neuter, both physically and socially."[6]
In 1989, American talk show host
In 1998, Sinclair was a graduate student of rehabilitation counseling at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.[3][8] They never found a job in the field despite possessing knowledge and qualifications, likely due to having a radical stance on autism and neurodiversity.[citation needed]
Sinclair was the first person to "articulate the autism-rights position".[1]
Views
In 1993, Sinclair wrote the essay "Don't Mourn for Us" (1993) with an anti-cure perspective on
You didn't lose a child to autism. You lost a child because the child you waited for never came into existence. That isn't the fault of the autistic child who does exist, and it shouldn't be our burden. We need and deserve families who can see us and value us for ourselves, not families whose vision of us is obscured by the ghosts of children who never lived. Grieve if you must, for your own lost dreams. But don't mourn for us. We are alive. We are real.[9]
—Jim Sinclair, "Don't Mourn for Us", Our Voice, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1993
Sinclair also expresses their frustration with the double standard autistic people face, such as being told their persistence is "pathological" when neurotypical people are praised for their dedication to something important to them.[8] Sinclair has criticized the medical view that autistic people have deficits in social skills, arguing that autistic people can be compared to a different culture in a neurotypical-dominated society.[10]
Sinclair is the first documented autistic person to reject people-first language.[11]
Autreat
Sinclair established and ran
See also
References
- ^ New York Magazine. Retrieved 28 June 2008.
- ^ Shapiro, Joseph (26 June 2006). "Autism Movement Seeks Acceptance, Not Cures". NPR. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
- ^ Autreat. 1998. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ a b c Harmon, Amy (20 December 2004). "How About Not 'Curing' Us, Some Autistics Are Pleading". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 November 2007.
- ^ Leith, Sam (16 February 2013). "Family Differences". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
- ^ Sinclair, Jim (1997). "Self-introduction to the Intersex Society of North America". Syracuse University. Archived from the original on 7 February 2009. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
- ^ "Toby on *Sally*". Ace Archive. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
- ^ Syracuse Herald Journal. 16 August 1999. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
- ^ Autreat. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
- ISSN 2159-8371.
- ^ ISBN 978-981-13-8437-0
- ISBN 978-1-4408-6229-8.