Office of Institutional Safety & Equity (OISE) July 2022

IN THIS ISSUE Reflections on Freedom and Independence National Disability Pride Month International Non-Binary People's Day Happy 4th of July! From Our Collection Faith Ringgold's Declaration of Freedom and Independence In the United States, the month of July is an annual recognition and celebration of Independence Day, National Disability Independence Day and International Non-Binary People's Day.   "We should be celebrating freedom from the 19th of June to the 4th of July." This quote by Opal Lee, the Grandmother of Juneteenth, is a constant reminder that "freedom" is not a one day celebration: we must renew our commitment to freedom on a daily basis and remember that no one is free until we are all free. Lee's words also prompts us to acknowledge that everyone has their own unique ways to commemorate the 4th of July. The U.S. observation of Independence Day means different things to different people, at different times in the great epoch of this nation. Frederick Douglass boldly wrote about the meaning of the 4th of July to him, as did Francis Scott Key, as do the Indigenous nations of this land. Even with what may seem like setbacks, delays, or challenges to our inalienable right to freedom, we are led to find comfort in the fact that the "flag was still there."

We are still here. And we continue to fight for freedom. For that very fact alone, there is hope. And hope endures - above all else and through every great obstacle of our time. The month of July is also National Disability Pride month, a time to "listen to the voices of disabled people and what they have to say about their rights and what they need." However, disability history is not taught in schools and most people enter into adulthood without any knowledge of disability history, laws concerning disability or the disability civil rights movement that is responsible for the passage of the American with Disabilities Act of 1990 and many assistive devices and technologies that have become commonplace in our society. In this issue we bring awareness to this history and invite you to learn about the various ways people celebrate and experience Independence Day, National Disability Pride Month, and International Non-Binary People's Day. -- Dr. Ronke Oke The Office of Institutional Safety & Equity (OISE) oise-hr.pafa.org

"I don't know who needs to hear this today but you are "disabled enough." You deserve to use any help, support and mobility aids that are available to you and your needs are entirely valid." -- Phil Ayana @disability_with_phil

National Disability Pride Month

A chance to 'amplify one another': What is Disability... For Tiffany Yu, Disability Pride Month is about recognizing her disability as an integral part of who she is. For Anthony Rios, it's about accepting that his disability makes him different, not worse. The Americans with Disabilities Act was... Read more www.usatoday.com Americans with Disabilities Act The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA (42 U.S.C. § 12101) is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. The ADA was first introduce in 1986 by the National Council on Disability and was introduced in the House and Senate in 1988. The final version of the bill was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush. It was later amended in 2008 and signed by President George W. Bush. ADA requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations. It also protects persons with disabilities from discrimination in many areas of postsecondary education, including admission, academics, and research. Disability History: The Disability Rights Movement (U.S. ... Treatment and perceptions of disability have undergone transformation since the 1900s. This has happened largely because people with disabilities have demanded and created those changes. Like other civil rights movements, the disability rights... Read more www.nps.gov Learn More About Disability History

Why Disability Activists Argue Against Labels Like... People with disabilities have long been opposing "positive" terminologies for their disabled experiences - through movements like #SayTheWord and #ThisIsWhatDisabilityLooksLike, among others. However, before the popularity of social media, people ... Read more theswaddle.com

"I didn't think I was allowed to be non-conforming or genderqueer or non-binary — I was just always like 'a gay man' because that's just the label I thought I had to be. [...] I'm just being who I wanna be." -- Jonathan Van Ness

Disability and the Museum Disability History Museum The Disability History Museum hosts a Library of virtual artifacts, Education curricula, and Museum exhibits. These programs are designed to foster research and study about the historical experiences of people with disabilities and their communities. Read more www.disabilitymuseum.org Disability and HigherEd Disability Language Style Guide As language, perceptions and social mores change rapidly, it is becoming increasingly difficult for journalists and other communicators to figure out how to refer to people with disabilities. Even the term "disability" is not universally... Read more ncdj.org

International Non-Binary People's Day

International Non-Binary People's Day International Non-Binary People's Day aims to raise awareness of the issues faced by non-binary people worldwide.  Some issues faced by Non-binary persons include: Receiving inadequate medical care, facing health care discrimination, and being refused treatment on the basis of their gender identity; Facing a special form of transphobia and told that their gender identity is “fake” or “a joke” or “made up”;  Being misgendered, using the wrong pronouns, and other microaggressions (i.e., the non-affirmation of their gender pronouns).

The Struggles of Rejecting the Gender Binary... Feature Not everyone identifies as male or female. This is what it's like to be nonbinary in a world that wants to box you in. Salem, a nonbinary 20-year-old in North Carolina. Credit... Jessica Dimmock for The New York Times 'Why didn't you wear ... Read more www.nytimes.com Still Me | Short Film 'Still Me' follows the story of a non-binary teenager (Bailey). After coming to terms with their identity it's time for them to come out at school and navigate what this means for their social life. However, this proves harder than they anticipate and Bailey is faced *Sensitive Material Warning Non-Binary Gender People Describe Their Gender Journeys Forgotten figures who challenged gender expression and... Non-binary and trans people have always been here, not least in every recorded society from the ancient world onwards. Why is it then that they're often absent from the tales and lists of historical figures we hear about? The answer lies, in... Read more www.britannica.com

"More Than Organs" Envisions Queer, Disabled, BIPOC Futures Kay Ulanday Barrett's second poetry collection acknowledges the cruelty of the world we live in, but functions as a field guide for cultivating happiness and community within it. Check out more from Read Me, our queer literature column, here . Read more www.them.us

Blind, BIPOC, Nonbinary Seattle Musician Brittany Davis... by Alexa Peters Most of us live our lives unaware of our reliance on sound. Birdsongs mark the seasons, a whistle signifies a boiling kettle, a spoken "hello" invites us to connect with one another, and we think very little of it. But for... Read more southseattleemerald.com

Dreaming Disability Justice with Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Cyree Jarelle Johnson

OISE WISHES YOU A SAFE & HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

"I'd like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free and wanted other people to be also free." -- Rosa Parks

PAFA will be closed on Monday July 4th in observance of Independence Day. The museum will be closed and classes canceled.

35 Things to do in Philly for the 4th Here's how to celebrate America's birthday in America's birthplace with our guide to July Fourth in Philly, including fireworks, block parties and more. Read more www.visitphilly.com

July 4th: Whose Independence Day is it? As with all op-eds published by People's World, this article represents the views of its author. The Fourth of July always brings to mind a line from the much acclaimed independent Indigenous movie, Smoke Signals, when one of the characters... Read more www.peoplesworld.org

Nelson Mandela's First Interview in the United States,1990

From Our Collection

Declaration of Freedom and Independence by Faith Ringgold 2009.Harold A. and Ann R. Sorgenti Fund for African-American Art, Color serigraph. 15 x 22 in. "I had something I was trying to say and sometimes the message is an easy transmission and sometimes it's a difficult one but I love the power of saying it so I'm gonna do it whether it's hard or easy." -- Faith Ringgold More by Faith Ringgold

We challenge you to check PAFA’s Diversity Awareness Calendar monthly and attend monthly OISE sponsored events. The purpose of this calendar is to celebrate and raise awareness of religious obligations, ethnic and cultural festivities, and significant events that may affect students, colleagues, and friends in the PAFA community.  Office of Institutional Safety & Equity Being an ally for a S.A.F.E. Community at PAFA