July Disability Pride Month
Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh, dearest family,May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
Today marks the 1000th day of intensified genocide in Palestine, tomorrow marks 250 years of “so-called u.s.“ occupation, colonialism, imperialism and genocide against Indigenous, Black, and Global South people. And now, as we are three-days in Disability Pride month, we reflect on how slow and persistent genocide has disabled our communities, we reflect on how authoritarianist regimes and fascist governments have exiled disabled community members attempting to erase our existence. But, it’s through disability justice leaders and community, we’ve learned to relate to disability—our own, the ones we love, our community’s, and those in the margins of the margins—not as something fixed, binding, or defined by limitation, but as a site of wisdom, interdependence, and collective care.
Through the teachings of these leaders, especially Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, we’ve learned that the future is disabled—both in that our birth, aging bodies, facing illness, experiencing oppression, and moving in and out of disability, meaning many of us will become disabled at some point in our lives, if we are not already moving with disability without having the community, language, and tools to name it and support it. Disability Justice reminds us that disability is not simply an individual condition but is shaped by the systems we live within, and that access, care, and survival are collective responsibilities.
And also, the future includes disabled folks. It is not enough to imagine disabled people surviving in the future, we must understand that disabled people are actively creating the futures we need. When the systems around us are designed to attack disabled folks’ lives and livelihoods, we must intentionally create futures that love, center, and live with disabled folks.
In recognizing the future IS disabled,
The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD)
**As always, if you’d like ASL Interpretation for any of our events, please email hey@themasgd.org with the Event Name and Date at least two weeks in advance**
**Also, please be on the look-out for the registration link being released next week for our trans methodologies training on Sunday, August 2nd and August 9th!!