Thanks to Carolyn Newman for the photo. As seen from this side of Elliott Bay, downtown participated in the nationwide “Light It Blue” initiative tonight – a show of support for health-care workers, first responders, and others providing essential services.
Let me start by saying that I am extremely grateful and humbled by our heroes in the frontline but please remember the “Light it Blue” slogan actually belongs to the Autistic community. Autism is a spectrum disorder so they were using the rainbow (because it, too, is a spectrum) initially but then the LGBTQ community took it over. As the mother of an child with Autism, I beg you to please find something else to honor our selfless heroes. Please don’t take “Light it Blue” from the Autistics too. Let’s find something else. Please. Thank you!
NOYEL, Please tell me how a primary color can “belong” to a community, and how a gesture of gratitude such as “Light it Blue” is taking anything away from anyone. I can easily think of a few other entities that are also associated with the color blue. Also, how and when did the LGBTQ community take over the rainbow from the Autistic community? As I understand it, the rainbow “Pride” flag was first used in 1978, and as far as I know anyone can still use a rainbow.
Novel, As an autistic person, I can say that there are many autistic adults who don’t like the “Light It Up Blue” campaign or Autism Speaks, the organization that started it. So no problem with using blue for First Responders as far as many autistic adults feel.And as far as I know, the Autistic community started using the rainbow infinity symbol probably in the last 10 or so years as a response to the Autism Speaks puzzle symbol, because we aren’t puzzles to ourselves. This after the LGBTQ community had been using the rainbow Pride flag since 1978, as R2 points out. So no, the LGBTQ community didn’t steal it.
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