In a year where disability rights are being challenged, and despite vandals damaging the city's flag pole a week before, nothing was gong to stop the disability community from raising its flag Wednesday.
"It's important to remember that we have to fight to continue to be free and integrated. It's a battle. We're diverse, we're powerful, we contribute a lot to this community," said Western New York Independent Living's Todd Vaarwerk at the flag raising. "Yet, I have to fight for my right to stand here before you, in front of the cameras. So, for me, raising this flag in 2026 means the fight continues, and we're winning."
Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan said the flag raising almost didn’t happen after vandals damaged the pole and stole a Somali flag last week. He says the city worked quickly to make sure Disability Pride could be recognized.
"This year it almost didn't happen, because the forces in America who are against treating everyone equally, who are against diversity, they came and vandalized our flagpole," Ryan said Wednesday.
"I knew the next event we had up was this event, so we made sure that we had a city crew working here a very long time to repair the flagpole to make it so we would be able to hoist this flag for Disability Pride Month," Ryan added. "So, we were able to get it done because we didn't want the actions of vandals, people who believe in intolerance, to be able to steal our celebration from us."
The month of July is Disability Pride Month and several events throughout the region, including the fourth annual flag raising, celebrate the 36th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The flag, which has five different colored diagonal stripes, represents different groups of people with disabilities. The stripes are set on a black background symbolizing mourning and anger for people who died while fighting for disability rights.
"As you walk past the flag. Think about which stripe might apply to you or people that you know, and what that means. The diagonal direction of the flag, going all the way across the field, reminds us that disability cuts across all socioeconomic barriers," Vaarwerk said. "Doesn't matter what color you are, what religion you worship, what kind of job you have, disability has an equal opportunity to affect you."
Later this month, on July 24th, Western New York Independent Living will host the region’s largest Disability Pride festival at Riverworks, from 2 to 7 p.m. The event is free to the public.
David Herring, a local activist and board member of the Neurodiversity Network of Western New York, emphasized that disability pride includes accepting people for the totality of who they are.
“As far as I'm concerned, you can try and partition out the person from the autism all you want, but you can't take the autism out the person," Herring said. "Yes, I want you to see me for more than just being an autistic person, but it is fundamentally who I am.”
