Day of Mourning Virtual DC Vigil
Our DC vigil began with remarks from ASAN Executive Director Julia Bascom.
“The full list of names we’ve been collecting for the past 11 years is now over 1600 names, and it takes more than an hour and a half to read.”
We also heard remarks from ASAN Director of Advocacy Zoe Gross on the tenth anniversary of the Day of Mourning and a reading of her piece “Killing Words.”
“When I started Day of Mourning, it was considered a controversial and possibly anti-parent event that was avoided by some organizations because they didn’t want to get involved in that. Now many disability organizations are here with us, mourning today. When I started Day of Mourning the prevalent news coverage of filicides was very negative about the victims and very sympathetic towards the perpetrators. I’ve seen that slowly begin to change. We haven’t seen enough change; we’ll never see enough change until we end ableist violence. But what we do here has meaning and it has impact. And what we do here and what we’ve been doing for the past ten years has created change and continues to create change.”
Elena Hung of Little Lobbyists also shared her remarks.
“Here’s the thing: parenting a disabled child is hard. But that’s because parenthood, done right, is hard. Parenting a disabled child is also joyful, and that’s because parenthood, done right, is joyful. And when we only see parenting disabled children as hard, not joyful, then we’re failing.
Day of Mourning Virtual Vigil
Our virtual vigil was hosted by ASAN Community Engagement Manager Noor Pervez. We also heard remarks from partners such as the Arc’s Peter Berns and Little Lobbyists’ Elena Hung. We also read the names and ages of all the victims of filicide we have recorded and held a moment of silence in their memory. You can rewatch our Virtual Vigil here.