July is Mad Pride Month

MindFreedom International

July is Mad Pride Month

"We Are The 100 Percent!"

2012 Events in More Than Five Nations

Show "Creative Maladjustment"

Did you know Martin Luther King expressed pride in psychological "maladjustment" to oppression? He called for an International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment (IAACM) more than a dozen times.

MindFreedom International invites you to tell us how you will make MLK's vision real this July! Celebrate 20 years of Mad Pride!

SAMPLE ACTION: Honor friends and colleagues who are unique by forwarding the below exciting Mad Pride 2012 News with a few words like, "Thank you ______ for your IAACM leadership!"

BELOW are recent and upcoming Mad Pride events in five nations celebrating individual and global creative maladjustment, and peacefully challenging the mental health industry's futile cheerleading for what is falsely called "normal."
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MAD PRIDE COMING UP JULY 14, 2012!

You heard of Gay Pride... Black Pride... What is Mad Pride? A movement that celebrates the human rights and spectacular culture of people considered very different by our society. You!

Mad Pride isn't just for the 1 percent... or the 99 percent... Every human is uniquely different, so this is a celebration that 100 percent of humanity can be part of!

July 14 -- Bastille Day -- is the traditional day for Mad Pride, since among those freed from the Bastille in Paris were two held because of psychological labels. For 31 years our movement for nonviolent revolution in mental health has rallied around 14 July, and the whole month. Join in the fun!

You can celebrate Mad Pride Month whenever and wherever, but here are a few Mad Pride events in Toronto, Vancouver, Oregon, Italy, UK, Ireland....
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TORONTO: *INSANE* NUMBER OF MAD PRIDE EVENTS!

Activists in Toronto have always been strong on Mad Pride. This year they are crazy strong. Toronto is organizing more than a dozen amazing events over five days from July 10 to 15, 2012!

The Toronto festival has everything from arts and music to panels and parties to a parade including a Bed Push! (You push a gurney through the streets, chased by guerilla theater psychiatrists!)

Here's a link to all Mad Pride Toronto 2012 events. Click event title links to see the fantastic posters:
http://www.madprideto.com/events.html

Find the link there to their Facebook, which has more complete event info.
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VANCOUVER 'MAD' ART GALLERY

In Vancouver, Canada on July 14, 2012, the West Coast Mental Health Network holds a Mad Poets & Krazy Cases Fundraiser for Mad Pride Day.

There will be artwork, pizza, drinks, and a cabaret with an open mic for "poets, visionaries, singers, strummers and hummers with something to get off their chests and who are in the mood to celebrate our human bio-diversity and unparalleled tenacity in the face of persistent challenges and barriers." Gallery Gachet, is dedicated to psychiatric survivor art!

For info about how you can participate (for example by painting eyeglass cases!):
http://bit.ly/madpride-vancouver-2012 (scroll half-way down, to Mad Poets and Crazy Kases)


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YOU CAN HONOR PATCH ADAMS AT OREGON COUNTRY FAIR

At this year's Oregon Country Fair -- a mad event in its own right (Google some images!) -- MindFreedom International will celebrate Mad Pride on July 14 in the Community Village by awarding clown / physician / psychiatric survivor Patch Adams, MD for decades of Lunacy Promoting Leadership in MLK's IAACM!

Since 1992, Patch Adams has also helped provide 20 years of support for MindFreedom International, and his "Gesundheit Institute" has been a proud sponsor in the MFI coalition. Find us in OCF:
http://bit.ly/patch-adams-iaacm-award
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MAD PRIDE IRELAND LIVES ON!

Mad Pride Ireland held a Mad Pride Family Fun Day Ballydehob on May 27, 2012, with over 1,500 people and a balloon release in memory of John McCarthy, their founder who just passed away recently. They followed that up with a June 3 fourth annual event in Cork. These events featured numerous musical groups, a market, and clowns and other performers, see a video:
http://bit.ly/madpride-ireland-2012

MindFreedom asks all Mad Pride 2012 participants to hold a "Moment of Loudness" to remember inspiring global Mad Pride poet leader, John McCarthy, founder of Mad Pride Ireland. Whether or not you knew John, check out inspiring videos about his Mad Pride legacy:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/campaign/madpride/john-mccarthy-rip
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BOYCOTT NORMAL SUPPORTS MAD PRIDE!

Seen the "Label Rip" at the protest of the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting?

Now you can see this and many of the videos, photos and coverage, plus listen to audio, about the successful MindFreedom protest in front of thousands of psychiatrists in Philadelphia:
http://bit.ly/apa-2012-protest

The Mad Pride theme was "Boycott Normal: Occupy APA!" Our folks may have tough days, but what is mistakenly called "normal" is wrecking a whole planet's ecosystem. Normal... isn't.

MindFreedom International and allied organizations united for a successful, peaceful march and protest of the 2012 APA Annual Meeting, questioning the dysfunctional over-labeling, over-drugging and forced psychiatric treatment all too common in psychiatric practice today. Hundreds of psychiatric survivors and allies made our voices heard.

You can now see a collection of a variety of mainstream media, and of course our own media as well, of this historic event. To see video, photos, articles, hear a BBC broadcast, as well as news and blog coverage, see:
http://bit.ly/apa-2012-protest

Thanks to everyone in making the protest a success! Our peaceful surprise weapon: Mutual support! MindFreedom's emerging resistance community is not letting up on the APA -- a peaceful protest of APA's smaller fall conference in New York City is already planned. To learn more about the event, see:
https://www.facebook.com/events/417279764959510/
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BASTILLE DAY AT HOME: NEW YORK STATE!

New York State is also where the first Bastille Day protest in support of our movement took place, 31 years ago. On 13 July 2012 in Albany, NY the theme of this year's event is, "Everyone is at risk! Celebrate the human spirit. Speak out against psychiatric oppression." More info here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/397831000235813/

And check out the new Occupy Psychiatry Facebook page, to help coordinate similar peaceful resistance:
https://www.facebook.com/OccupyPsychiatry
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GO MAD PRIDE ITALY!

You need a little Italian for their Facebook page, but Torino, Italy held a Mad pride event last month:
https://www.facebook.com/madpride.torino

Their promo video has special creative maladjustment:
http://vimeo.com/44320101
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MAD PRIDE UK

Worcestershire, UK didn't just name sauce. They are holding "guerilla" Mad Pride events throughout 2012, see:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mad-Pride-Festival-Worcestershire/228316700594125

While a psychiatric survivor group in UK was formed back to 1848, their first known "Mad Pride" event was 1993, so way to go on the 20th anniversary! Wikipedia has a bit of Mad Pride history here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Pride

Info on the psychiatric survivors' movement is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_survivor

Mad Pride's message to all human beings is inclusive: "Hey... you're one of us!"

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DID WE MISS YOUR MAD PRIDE EVENT?

Inspired to take action? Even one person can show Mad Pride, such as by forwarding this!

Let MindFreedom know about you are celebrating your Mad Pride at news@mindfreedom.org. MFI will try to announce events on the web:
http://bit.ly/madpride-2012

Those organizing Mad Pride events can chat on a free and open email list:
http://lists.mindfreedom.org/mailman/listinfo/madpride-talk_lists.mindfreedom.org

Too busy to chat? There's a one-way public news list just for Mad Pride activities here:
http://lists.mindfreedom.org/mailman/listinfo/madpride-news_lists.mindfreedom.org

To see some past Mad Pride events for inspiration, follow the links here:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/campaign/madpride/
and browse 100's of items here:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/search?SearchableText=%22mad+pride%22

For info about Boycott Normal go here:
http://www.boycottnormal.org

For quotes from MLK's speeches and essays over 12 years about "creative maladjustment" and calling for an IAACM, click here:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/mental-health-global/iaacm

To see other events, conferences, etc. related to the movement to change the mental health system, click here:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/events_sf
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