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Congress Must Stop Scapegoating People With Mental Health Disabilities

| Ianthe Dempsey

The House has voted to pass HR 1112, a bill that would close the “Charleston Loophole”, which currently enables some people who have failed criminal background checks to purchase guns. While we would like to applaud this effort to enforce existing common-sense gun laws, an unrelated amendment introduced by...

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ASAN Condemns Trump Administration’s Attack on Transgender Americans

| Ianthe Dempsey

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is considering adopting a federal standard which would exclude transgender and intersex people from the protections of many anti-discrimination laws and policies. There is a significant overlap between the autistic and transgender communities – and since autistic people first...

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ASAN Condemns Proposed ‘Public Charge’ Immigration Regulations

| Ianthe Dempsey

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network strongly condemns the Administration’s proposed “Public Charge” regulation, which discriminates against disabled and low-income immigrants and makes pathways to American citizenship contingent upon wealth and the absence of disability. “Public charge” clauses have existed in US immigration law since 1882 and are a clear...

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ASAN Opposes Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh

| Ianthe Dempsey

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network opposes the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. As a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Kavanaugh has opposed the rights of people with disabilities to make our own choices. He has said that he might want to strike...

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ASAN Condemns Family Separation

| Ianthe Dempsey

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network forcefully condemns the Trump Administration’s unconscionable policy of separating immigrant families at the border, and the subsequent incarceration and warehousing of infants and children. This policy is not mandated by law, but is a deliberate act of cruelty the Administration has chosen to inflict...

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ASAN Comments on Proposed Delay of Significant Disproportionality Rule

| Ianthe Dempsey

This letter is available as a PDF here. May 11, 2018 Johnny W. Collett Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services U.S. Department of Education 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Room 5107 Potomac Center Plaza, Washington, DC 20202-2500 Dear Secretary Collett: The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN)1For more...

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ASAN Statement on 2018 CDC Prevalence Data

| Ianthe Dempsey

Today, the Centers for Disease Control released the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network report, which estimates the prevalence of autism in certain areas. The results indicate that better recognition of autism, and an encouraging reduction of racial and gender disparities in diagnosis, have caused rates of diagnosis...

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ASAN Statement on Gun Violence Prevention Following Parkland Mass Shooting

| Ianthe Dempsey

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) joins the nation in mourning the loss of the seventeen men, women, and children who were murdered on February 14, 2017 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. As in all mass shootings, these deaths were tragic, senseless, and preventable. We...

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ASAN Condemns President’s Budget Request

| Ianthe Dempsey

Statement: ASAN strongly condemns the deep cuts that the President’s proposed budget would make to Medicaid, Social Security, employment programs, housing supports, and other critical programs for people with disabilities. The President’s profoundly hypocritical proposal would simultaneously slash the critical programs that help people with disabilities find employment, while...

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ASAN Condemns Passage of Tax Bill

| Ianthe Dempsey

ASAN strongly condemns the final passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), a tax giveaway for corporations and the wealthiest Americans which comes at great cost to the disability community. This law will take away health care from an estimated 13 million people. By drastically reducing tax...

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