The LGBTQ+ Communication Sciences and Disorder Student Association (CSDSA) condemns the use of divisive and hateful rhetoric in political discourse most especially when it is targeted at already disenfranchised groups in the United States, particularly Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) communities; immigrants; trans and gender expansive individuals; LGBTQIA+ folks; women and girls; disabled people; and others who face discrimination based on their identities. We recognize that many CSD students belong to these groups, and those in education and academia also face uncertainty with threats to our public educational systems.The disabled people we serve as a profession, already within systems not designed for them, are confronting the likelihood of further limitations in accessibility and support from public systems. So many are hurting, angry, and afraid. Thus, in light of recent political developments, we issue this statement of support:
We support diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ) as an organization within CSD. The discipline of CSD has had a diversity crisis since inception. We believe as an organization that our clinical body should better reflect populations that we work with and that our collective non-diversity negatively affects marginalized communities that have communication disorders/differences. We encourage university programs, schools, and healthcare facilities to adopt and bolster anti-racist policies and continue to share the collective responsibility to continue to foster DEIJ within and outside CSD. In the words of Audre Lorde, “Without community there is no liberation…But community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.” To students of the global majority, we stand in solidarity and commit to confronting racism within and outside CSD.
To LGBTQ+ students, we would like to provide encouragement to queer and trans communities. As an organization, we celebrate LGBTQ+ identities. We recognize the importance of LGBTQ+ topics in education as well as the importance of LGBTQ+ research that is informed/led by our community. To quote Dr. Robinson, “Let our joy be our resistance.” To international students, we acknowledge your hardship and insecurity during this time. You belong here. We recognize that many students experience intersectionality of marginalized identities which compounds the complexities, effects, and hardships for these students.
The ICF model, as described by Dr. Brooke Hallowell in Aphasia and Other Acquired
Neurogenic Language Disorders, “…also highlights the importance of our work to promote communication wellness as a basic human right.” We would like to emphasize that communication includes the full use of our voice and, therefore, access to your voice, is a human right, and thus gender-affirming voice care is a human right.
To our rainbow community, please remember. Stay informed, stay safe, stay angry, stay compassionate, stay joyful, but most of all, just stay. Your existence is the light that others will use to find their way In the darkest of times. We find our path towards collective liberation in community, bound by our interconnected roots in the face of hostility and oppression. “Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation” -bell hooks
We are the past, the present, and the future, and we will not be erased.
LGBTQ+ CSDSA 