Jim Sinclair (activist)

Jim Sinclair is an American autistic activist and writer who helped pioneer the neurodiversity movement. Sinclair, along with Xenia Grant and Donna Williams, formed Autism Network International (ANI). Sinclair became the original coordinator of ANI. Sinclair is an advocate for the anti-cure position on autism, arguing that autism is an integral part of a person's identity and should not be cured. Sinclair is intersex.

Biography

Sinclair is Jewish and grew up with a mother, a father, and a brother. At a very young age, Sinclair identified with other disabled people. They saw a blind man walking with a cane and imitated it with a cane found in their grandparents' basement. When Sinclair was six years old, they played with a set of Johnny West action figures with their brother. If one of the arms came loose, Sinclair would secure it by turning the lasso into an improvised sling. For another figure that broke, Sinclair fashioned a wheelchair for it. Jim explained that "from very early on, I had the concept that you don't throw people away for being broken".

Sinclair has said that they did not speak until age 12. Sinclair was raised as a girl, but describes having an intersex body, and in a 1997 introduction to the Intersex Society of North America, Sinclair wrote, "I remain openly and proudly neuter, both physically and socially." Sinclair appeared on the '' The Sally Jessy Raphael Show'' as a guest with the alias "Toby" to talk about being intersex and asexual.

In 1998, Sinclair was a graduate student of rehabilitation counseling at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.

Sinclair was the first person to "articulate the autism rights position".

Views

In 1993, Sinclair wrote the essay "Don't Mourn for Us" (1993) with an anti-cure perspective on autism. The essay has been mentioned in ''The New York Times'' and '' New York'' magazine. In the essay, Sinclair writes,

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. 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.

Sinclair is the first documented autistic person to reject people-first language.

Autreat

Sinclair established and ran Autism Network International, also known as Autreat, the first independent autistic-run gathering, for fifteen years.

See also

* Autism Network International

References

External links

Website for Autreat and ANI


at Archive.org

Cultural Commentary: Being Autistic Together
*

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20th-century American LGBTQ people
20th-century American writers
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Syracuse University alumni
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