As we move toward the end of the year and look forward to what 2023 could bring, it’s important to acknowledge how difficult 2022 has been for so much of our community. We have faced the dismantling of reproductive rights on national and state levels. We have seen constant threats and full-throated attacks on LGBTQIA+ rights, with trans people’s lives and safety being especially targeted. And we have seen little action against COVID-19, even as it continues to disproportionately affect ours and other vulnerable communities. Through it all, ASAN has been able to keep fighting thanks to the support of community members like you. We hope as 2022 draws to a close, you can include us in your end of year giving.

This summer, we condemned the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Bodily autonomy, privacy, and access to abortion all matter for people with disabilities; reproductive justice is a disability justice issue. This year, we’ve worked to create accessible resources for our community to stay up-to-date on our rights, including Our Bodies, Our Rights: What’s Going On at the Supreme Court?, Our Rights Under Threat: What Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization means for people with disabilities, and our reproductive justice issue tracker. We also held a plain language webinar series to talk about the Supreme Court decision and its far-reaching impacts. As attacks on reproductive rights continue around the US, it’s important for conversations about our rights to be accessible for all of us.

We also continued to advocate and create resources around COVID-19. This year the federal and many state governments dropped many of the protections and mandates meant to protect people from the health and economic consequences of COVID 19. ASAN joined several other disability rights organizations in meeting with Health and Human Services to advocate for the needs of people with disabilities regarding the pandemic response and push for action when these concerns went unaddressed. We continued to create accessible resources on the changing pandemic guidelines, new vaccination standards, and how to access care. As the pandemic continues and the government keeps pushing for “back to normal,” ASAN will continue to push for the rights and protections of the most vulnerable members of our community. We will continue to fight for people with disabilities to be centered in public health — and your help is crucial to that work.

This year also saw an increase in attacks on transgender people’s rights to public life in the form of bigoted, ill-informed bills banning trans people’s access to healthcare, athletics, and school participation, rising statewide book bans, and alarming state and federal bills. These attacks pose very real risks to vulnerable disabled LGBTQIA+ people. We will not quietly accept these attempts to force LGBTQIA+ people, especially transgender people, back into the closets and out of public life. That’s why ASAN released our Proud and Supported Series, including our Definitions and Beyond and Rights and Respect toolkits this year to support LGBTQIA+ self advocates and allies in knowing and defending their rights to care. ASAN also pushed against calls for segregation of LGBTQIA+ students in public schools, argued for the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ identities in sex education, and spoke in favor of strengthening nondiscrimination protections in the Affordable Care Act and Title IX.

These threats did not begin in 2022, and we can do far better work to combat them when we acknowledge their racist, transphobic, and ableist roots. Our community has lost far too many; we must not only continue the work to fight these threats, but to tackle the issues that allow them to spread. As a small organization, support from community members is integral to our work, and every gift moves us farther along in the fight for our right to control our bodies and live safely and fully in our communities.

It can be hard to see holding the line against this wave of bigotry as a victory in its own right when it leaves so many of us exhausted as self advocates, but to shout our rights to exist, to control our bodies, to live in our communities loudly and proudly in the faces of those who would see us disappear is a powerful act of resistance and triumph in itself. This year, your support has been integral to the work ASAN has done spreading the word, getting information into the hands of self advocates, and digging in our heels against this rising tide. It is because of your continuous support that we’ve been able to tackle these issues throughout the year, and it is that same support that will allow us to continue to hold the line into the new year.Help us continue to fight the threats targeting our communities together!

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

PO Box 66122
Washington, DC 20035

 

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