07/24/2026
As we celebrate Disability Pride Month in July, we are reminded that pride is born out of resistance, resilience, and an ongoing fight for basic human dignity.
This month, our commitment to that fight is more urgent than ever. Just last month, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a deeply troubling legal opinion memo attempting to reinterpret the landmark Supreme Court decision, Olmstead v. L.C. (1999). By signaling a retreat from the federal "integration mandate"—the core civil rights protection ensuring that people with disabilities have the right to live, work, and receive services in their own communities rather than being segregated—the federal government is threatening to roll back decades of hard-won progress.
Olmstead remains the law of the land, but civil rights mean very little if the government refuses to enforce them. We cannot—and will not—let the clock be turned back to an era of forced institutionalization and isolation.
True disability pride means honoring the legacy of the advocates who fought to break down institutional walls, while fiercely protecting the community integration we enjoy today. People with disabilities belong in their communities, in their own homes, and at their workplaces.
Let's keep fighting, keep advocating, and ensure that freedom remains a right for all of us.
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