May Newsletter: APIDA Heritage Month

Dear Friend,

Welcome to Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month. As a queer physically disabled Korean transracial and transnational adoptee raised in the Caribbean, this month is both important to me, and challenging, because in celebrations of APIDA Heritage, it is rare to see the many different rich identities and experiences that our people carry.

I’m proud to collaborate with AWN, as they’re a disability justice organization that deeply cares about intersectionality, and justice for disabled people who sit at the intersections of multiple oppressed identities and experiences, including LGBTQ people and BIPOC. Earlier this year I helped AWN write and publish their Guiding Principles, Incorporating Transformative & Restorative Justice into Our Work, which are intended to not just outline AWN’s approach to our work, but also to educate people on what transformative and restorative justice are, and be a template for other organizations to follow. 

I’m also passionate about ending sexual violence, which is an issue near and dear to AWN, especially because of how disabled people are disproportionately affected. To that end, I recommend you check out AWN’s recent blog post An Autistic Woman’s Experience with Sexual Assault by autistic disabled Latina lesbian woman Kayla Rodrigez (content warning for discussions of sexual violence and trauma). We need more conversations and visibility around this crucial issue, including solutions that don’t involve calling the police.

Celebrating Pansexual & Panromantic Awareness:

On May 24 we celebrated Pansexual & Panromantic Awareness Day. People who identify as pansexual have emotional and/or physical attraction to people inclusive of all genders. People who identify as panromantic may form romantic relationships with people regardless of gender. You can learn more and find support resources on the Trevor Project website. 

New on our blog:

In case you missed it, last month we published several new articles on our blog. We published three new posts. The first was Sensory and Communication Tools Deserve Respect by C.L. Bridge, which explores the harm of preventing autistic people to engage in calming behaviors like stimming. We also published a blog/video post by Kayley Whalen, an autistic trans woman, called Changelings and the Folk History of Autism, which traces evidence of trans and neurodivergent people going back hundreds of years through folktales and mythology. Plus there’s the aforementioned An Autistic Woman’s Experience with Sexual Assaultby Kayla Rodrigez. And if you want to learn more about our work fighting anti-trans legislation and missed our last newsletter, Fighting Back for Trans Rights.  

Releasing Soon: A Neurodiversity and Parenting Guide…In Color

Next month, for Pride month, we’ll be releasing a new book resource for Black families with neurodivergent children called A Neurodiversity and Parenting Guide…In Color. The book is a collaboration between AWN and Morénike Giwa Onaiwu. While we had hoped to release the book earlier this year, we have delayed the release to ensure the book is properly translated into Spanish as part of our commitment to language justice. Our translator Sofía Jarrín is working to be very nuanced and careful with the cultural context of the words and concepts we use when we translate things so that they are most accessible to Spanish-speaking communities.  Thank you to everyone who donated to our Language Justice fundraising campaign to help pay for this comprehensive translation. We will be sending out an email in June when the book is ready, so please stay tuned.

I hope you find these resources helpful, and I’m so proud to have worked with AWN in creating their guiding principles. AWN relies on the help of their generous donors to make this work possible. If you have the financial ability, I’d deeply appreciate it if you could donate even a few dollars to AWN’s work.

It is critical that we support organizations working for disability justice, especially in the current political climate. If the last 3 years have taught us anything, it is that disability justice is a foundational liberatory framework for our current and future world.

Can you please donate $50, $20, or $10 to help AWN continue to advance restorative and transformative justice for disabled and neurodivergent people, and all of AWN’s liberatory work?

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