[Video Description: Greta, a white woman with long dark hair and a light blonde streak in front. She’s wearing a black shirt, gold necklaces, blue nail polish, and a nose ring. Behind her is a calm background with a picture of a sun and rays. At the top of the video, there are three logos for Deaf Wings, DeafHope, and Deaf Unity.]
Our government is taking actions to undermine all aspects of our social and cultural systems built to care for people. They are systematically dismantling support for marginalized people and targeting any opposition. One example of this is withdrawing critical grant funding from nonprofits, without warning or valid reason. Another example is threatening to revoke grant funding unless organizations remove all mention of diversity, inclusion, equity and access in our materials. New grant applications explicitly say we are no longer able to do social justice work, that we cannot focus on support for immigrant communities, that we cannot have an accessibility focus.
DeafHope has received federal funding for many years, which has supported our life saving services to end violence in Deaf communities. About 75% of our funding is federal. DeafHope funds have not directly been canceled by the government yet. Instead our team made a collective decision to stop accepting federal funds. We are doing this because of authoritarian government actions. Because of their specific attack on oppressed communities like transgender people. Because accepting funds means stopping all of our solidarity movement work. DeafHope can no longer be complicit by accepting federal dollars. We are following the leadership of abolitionist organizations like HEARD.
We know we are taking a risk that our organization will be shut down by making this statement. We know that we are losing the funds that support our services. The risk faced by communities under attack by this government is so much higher. We owe it to all our people to take action in the face of fascism. DeafHope is making a call to action to each of you – what is happening in our government is not right. Do something: Contact your local, state, federal representatives and ask them to protect our people and systems of support. Donate to a Deaf anti-violence DVSV organization program. Volunteer for a program doing valuable work that supports our communities. Learn more about the dangerous actions of this federal government.
PLAIN LANGUAGE VERSION of the Statement
Right now, the U.S. government is making changes that hurt many people. These changes stop support from communities that need help the most.
Examples:
- Our government is taking away grant money from nonprofit organizations. No warning. No clear reason.
- They say we must remove words like “diversity,” “inclusion,” “equity,” and “access” from our organization and website.
- New rules say we can’t talk about social justice, immigrant support, or accessibility.
DeafHope organization did use federal money for many years. We got around 75% money from the federal government. That money did help us serve Deaf communities to stop violence.
The U.S. government has not ended our funding yet. But we decided to make a choice. We will not accept federal money anymore.
Why?
Because the U.S. government is hurting communities like transgender people. They want to control what we say and do. They do not want us to support each other or work together. We don’t accept or support that.
We follow the lead of other groups like HEARD, for example. We say no to injustice.
We know this is a BIG risk. Maybe we lose our services. Maybe the U.S. government will force DeafHope to close. But we see many people are being hurt more. We believe we must act now.
You can help. How?
- Contact government leaders. Ask them to protect our communities.
- Donate to Deaf anti-violence programs.
- Volunteer with groups that support our people.
- Learn more. Speak out.