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💙Summer Magazine & Disability Pride Month!💜

Updated: Jul 22, 2022


Summer is well and truly upon us, and it brings more than just record-breaking heatwaves! We've published a bumper quarterly magazine for our members. Read on to find out what's inside - and why we've got a different logo on Facebook and Twitter this month!
Front cover of Sheffield ME & Fibromyalgia Group's Summer 2022 magazine. Background: photo of an alpaca in a green landscape. Top: Sheffield ME & Fibromyalgia group, with the inclusive LGBT+ Pride version of the spiral circle logo. Centre: Summer 2022 Magazine. Bottom: PPOTS A Remarkable Condition - Sanjay Gupta Talk. New Al-Party Parliamentary Group for ME/CFS. Summer activities, including forest bathing! SMEFG Art Exhibition. Cover photo by Becca Gransbury. Sheffield ME Group is a Registered Charity: Number 1095416.
The front cover of our Summer 2022 members' magazine.

Our packed Summer magazine includes:

We publish our Magazines every quarter, and send them out by post and email to members. If you're interested in receiving this - along with all the other benefits of membership - you can sign up here for just £12 per year:

If you're already a member and haven't received your magazine yet, please contact info@sheffieldmegroup.co.uk for support.


Disability Pride Month logo

Last month we debuted our LGBT+ Pride logo on social media, to show our support, solidarity, allyship and welcoming of everyone who identifies under the banner. While the logo was only up during Pride month, the ethos remains true for us all year long.


This month we have a new logo, to celebrate Disability Pride Month!

Background is the Visually Safe Disability Pride Flag, which is charcoal grey with a diagonal band from the top left to bottom right corner, made up of five parallel stripes in red, gold, pale grey, blue, and green.  In front is Sheffield ME & Fibromyalgia Group's spiral circle logo in white.  In the centre of the logo is white text: 20 YEARS PROUD
Sheffield ME & Fibromyalgia Group's logo, combined with the Disability Pride flag.
History

July was chosen as Disability Pride month after US President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law on July 26, 1990. The first Disability Pride parade was held in Boston, Massachusetts that same year. In the UK, a Disability Pride event has been held in Brighton every year since 2017, though it moved online during the Covid pandemic. You can find out more here and here.


Flag

The flag we have incorporated into our logo was designed in 2021 by disabled artist Ann Magill, and is the second version of the flag that she first designed in 2019. The original design featured bold bright colours and a jagged zig-zag stripe, but it was noted that this design wasn't accessible to some disabled people, so it has since been redesigned with muted colours and a straight stripe:

A charcoal grey flag with a diagonal band from the top left to bottom right corner, made up of five parallel stripes in red, gold, pale grey, blue, and green.
Visually Safe Disability Pride Flag, created by Ann Magill in 2021

All aspects of the design carry meaning:

  • Charcoal background - mourning for all those who’ve suffered abuse and violence, because of ableism

  • Striped band - the barriers that disabled people have to cross every day, and and the ingenuity they illustrate when navigating those barriers

  • Red stripe - physical disabilities

  • Gold stripe - cognitive and intellectual disabilities, and neurodiversities

  • Light grey stripe - invisible and undiagnosed disabilities

  • Blue stripe - mental illness

  • Green stripe - sensory perception disabilities

Our pride

Under the UK Equality Act 2010, you’re considered disabled "if you have a physical or mental impairment that has a ‘substantial’ and ‘long-term’ negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities". That means for many people with ME/CFS, Fibromyalgia and Long Covid, their conditions are disabling.


The term 'disabled' can carry a lot of weight and historical stigma in our society, and as a result many don't feel comfortable applying the word to themselves. That's okay, and there's no obligation to do so if it doesn't feel right for you. But equally, many find it empowering to use the term as a form of ownership over their life experiences,


At Sheffield ME and Fibromyalgia Group, our priority is to support people in the area living with these conditions and Long Covid, and also to raise awareness about the impact they have on peoples' lives. As part of that, we recognise and want to raise awareness that these illnesses can be disabling. We don't think society, press or healthcare should shame people for the impact it has on their lives. We don't think people should feel pressured ho hide the impact of these conditions. And we want to continue fighting so that all those affected get the belief, support, research and treatment we deserve. That's why we are proud to celebrate Disability Pride Month!

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