Dear friends,

With the holiday season in full swing, we’re surrounded by reminders of community care. From food donation drives to community efforts to spend time together online for the holidays to avoid making our loved ones sick, there are activities going on all around us to reminding us to look out for each other. Caring is an action — and it’s one that we take seriously. Will you donate [[link removed]] to help us fight for what our community needs?

This year, we made it a priority to continue fighting alongside all disabled people as the global pandemic rages on. In addition to updating our COVID-19 case tracker [[link removed]] for disabled people in congregate settings, we fought back against ableist crisis standards of care [[link removed]] that would discriminate against disabled people trying to receive medical help during the pandemic. As funding for COVID relief began to take shape in Congress, we demanded disabled people be able to receive services in our homes and not nursing homes or other congregate settings, where COVID-19 spreads rapidly.

Along with these fights came victories. We were thrilled that a bill based on our organ transplant discrimination model legislation [[link removed]] was reintroduced in Congress this year. A discussion draft of the HCBS Access Act [[link removed]] also marked a major step towards making home- and community-based services available to everyone who needs them. This would require that HCBS have a certain amount of money set aside for it every year, in every state. And we joined COPAA, Communication First and multiple families in a settlement banning restraint and seclusion [[link removed]] in schools in Fairfax County, Virginia, ensuring that students in this district will be free from these dangerous and traumatizing practices. Your support made these victories possible — can you support our work [[link removed]] in the coming year?

Here are just a few more examples of our policy work this year:

* We joined an amicus brief explaining why trans people in Alabama shouldn’t be forced to get expensive surgery in order to get a gender marker change on their licenses.

* We advocated for the withdrawal of Louisiana HB 255, which would ban abortion for anyone under guardianship regardless of their actual wishes or medical needs.

* We worked as part of a coalition of nearly 50 advocacy groups demanding a full pardon for Neli Latson. He finally received it in 2021, after a decade of unjust prosecution and abuse.

* We advocated for police-free mental health crisis response options.

By supporting ASAN, you empower our policy work, toolkits, and everything else we do. We couldn’t do this without you. This holiday season, let’s keep taking action together [[link removed]] !

Sincerely,

Sam Crane

Legal Director
Autistic Self Advocacy Network


Autistic Self Advocacy Network
PO Box 66122
Washington, DC 20035
United States
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