Thanks to our colleagues at the Autistic Self Advocacy for their leadership in creating and annually organizing a National Day of Mourning in cities across the country on March 1st, in the honor and memory of people with disabilities killed by family members and caregivers. It is not to late to sign up as a site and use ASAN’s helpful toolkit to create a local event. Below is ASAN’s announcement.
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In the past five years, over four hundred people with disabilities have been murdered by their parents, relatives or caregivers.
On Wednesday, March 1st, the disability community will gather across the nation to remember these disabled victims of filicide – disabled people murdered by their family members or caregivers.
In the year since our last vigil, our community has lost 100 more people to filicide. These are just the cases that we are aware of – since we began monitoring this issue, we learn about more murders every week. We read the victims’ names, see their photographs, and gather what information we can about their lives. The criminal justice system has continued to give lighter sentences to parents and caregivers who murder disabled children. And we have seen both news and entertainment media continue to portray these murders in a sympathetic light.
We hold the Day of Mourning vigils to draw attention to these injustices, to commemorate the lives of victims, and demand justice and equal protection under the law for all people with disabilities. This would not be possible without the vital work of our volunteer site coordinators. Click here to learn about what site coordinators do, or to sign up to lead a vigil.
For the last six years, ASAN, ADAPT, Not Dead Yet, the National Council on Independent Living, the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, the American Association of People with Disabilities, and other disability rights organizations have come together to send a clear message that disability is not a justification for violence. We’ll be at our local vigils on Wednesday, March 1st – and we hope to see you there.
If you’re interested in leading a vigil in your area, please sign up to be a Day of Mourning vigil site coordinator.