WHATS THE BACK STORY ABOUT MAD PRIDE?
Mad Pride celebrates the human rights and spectacular culture of people considered very different by our society. Mad Pride may be celebrated anytime but is most often observed in the month of July, usually on or around July 14, Bastille Day. 2006 marks the 25th anniversary of psychiatric survivors using Bastille Day to celebrate Mad Pride. The tradition of using Bastille Day as Mad Pride Day was started in New York by the Mental Patients Liberation Alliance and has since spread around the world. The 14th of July marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in Paris, France in 1789. For over the past two centuries, the storming of the Bastille has been a universal symbol of liberation. In addition, when the Bastille was stormed, two prisoners with psychiatric labels being detained there for that reason were freed. The Mad Pride celebrations have grown directly out of an historic but little-known international social change movement led by psychiatric survivors and mental healt
