{"id":1840,"date":"2024-12-03T13:33:45","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T02:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/?p=1840"},"modified":"2024-12-04T10:48:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T23:48:53","slug":"speaking-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/2024\/12\/03\/speaking-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaking out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Speaking out<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Leigh Creighton is a Newcastle-based disability and human rights advocate, passionate about sharing his experience as a person with Down syndrome. He regularly speaks at events and on panels across Australia. We sat down with him at Congress to hear about his motivational speaking.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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To read the full digital issue of Voice, download a copy here.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Download Voice \u2013 Celebrating Congress 2024<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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When did you first learn about standing up for your rights and speaking up?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I started in a program and found my own voice and learned to get on stage and speak. I became a peer mentor and motivational speaker, advocating for people with Down syndrome and mental health advocate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is a peer mentor?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As a peer mentor, I teach people from other organisations to learn to speak up for themselves. It makes me feel great helping other people to be their own self-advocates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What tips would you give to people who are keen to become an advocate?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First and foremost, you\u2019ve got to find your own voice. Speak naturally. Speak compassionately and help others along the way to promote their own voice. I\u2019ve started a self-advocacy group down where I live and it\u2019s really important for those people to have family and other support people to help them speak up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What do you hope to do in the future?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I want to become an author and write my own book. I want to work towards the United Nations speak. I always wanted to go around the world doing TEDx talks. I want to be a well-known Down syndrome advocate. I want to advocate around the world. It\u2019s very important to make my nieces and nephews very proud of me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What do you want people to know about people with Down syndrome?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t ever put people down. That\u2019s something I don\u2019t like. Don\u2019t ever put people down. Always lift them up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What do you wish people knew about people with Down syndrome?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

They bring the gift of love. They bring their own self. I wish that one day, people with Down syndrome can rule the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What are some misconceptions about people with Down syndrome?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

That they\u2019re always happy. But on some days, they\u2019re not happy. Sometimes it comes from mental health, comes from depression, anxiety. I just want people to be able to do things freely, to make their lives better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What negative experiences have you had as a person with Down syndrome?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When I\u2019m out in the community, I get called a lot of bad language\u2014retarded and spastic. Bullying. It makes me really upset. It makes me vulnerable to see people go through that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What changes would you like to see to improve life for people with Down syndrome?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We should be treated like human beings, like everyone else in this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Download the full digital edition of Voice here.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Download Voice – Celebrating Congress 2024<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Leigh Creighton is a passionate disability and human rights advocate. Leigh shares his experience as a motivational speaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"711,991,763,597,972,923","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1840"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1958,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions\/1958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downsyndrome.org.au\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}