Jim Sinclair (activist)
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Jim Sinclair is an American autistic activist and writer who helped pioneer the neurodiversity movement.<ref name=Solomon/> Sinclair, along with Xenia Grant and Donna Williams, formed Autism Network International (ANI).<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> Sinclair became the original coordinator of ANI.<ref name="Autreat 1998"/> 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.<ref name=Harmon/> Sinclair is intersex.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":2" /> Template:Autism rights movement
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. He saw a blind man walking with a cane and imitated him with a cane found in his grandparents' basement. When Sinclair was six years old, he played with a set of Johnny West action figures with his 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".<ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref>
Sinclair has said that he did not speak until age 12.<ref name="Harmon">Template:Cite news</ref> Sinclair was raised as a girl, but describes having an intersex body,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and in a 1997 introduction to the Intersex Society of North America, Sinclair wrote, "I remain openly and proudly neuter, both physically and socially."<ref name="Self-introduction">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sinclair appeared on the The Sally Jessy Raphael Show as a guest with the alias "Toby" to talk about being intersex and asexual.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1998, Sinclair was a graduate student of rehabilitation counseling at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.<ref name="Autreat 1998">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref>
Sinclair was the first person to "articulate the autism rights position".<ref name="Solomon" /> In his book "Don't Mourn for Us", he uses He/him and Xe/xem pronouns.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Views
In 1993, Sinclair wrote the essay "Don't Mourn for Us" (1993) with an anti-cure perspective on autism.<ref name="DontMourn">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The essay has been mentioned in The New York Times<ref name=Harmon/> and New York magazine.<ref name="Solomon">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In the essay, Sinclair writes,
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— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries
}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Blockquote with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | author | by | char | character | cite | class | content | multiline | personquoted | publication | quote | quotesource | quotetext | sign | source | style | text | title | ts }}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.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Sinclair is the first documented autistic person to reject people-first language.<ref name=":2">Template:Citation</ref>
Autreat
Sinclair established and ran Autism Network International, also known as Autreat, the first independent autistic-run gathering,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> for fifteen years.
See also
References
External links
- 20th-century American LGBTQ people
- 20th-century American writers
- 21st-century American LGBTQ people
- 21st-century American writers
- American activists with disabilities
- American health activists
- Non-binary asexual people
- Autism activists
- Intersex non-binary people
- American intersex people
- American asexual people
- LGBTQ writers with disabilities
- Living people
- Non-binary activists
- LGBTQ American activists
- Autistic writers
- Syracuse University alumni
- Year of birth missing (living people)
- American intersex writers
- Autistic LGBTQ people
- American autistic people