11/22/22
Dear SSW Community,
I’m writing on behalf of all of us to acknowledge and decry the senseless act of hate and violence that took the lives of five people and caused injury to at least eighteen others at Club Q in Colorado Springs just this weekend. Our collective hearts and minds are with, in the deepest of sympathy, solidarity, strength, and power, the families and loved ones of those who were senselessly murdered.
We as a School of Social Welfare stand in solidarity with transgender, gender non-conforming, and all LGBTQIA+ people in our community, including our students, staff, and faculty, and also those people well beyond our immediate community. While our words matter, they are not and can not be enough. As social workers we must engage beyond the performative. It is our ethical mandate to stand against bias, hate, and violence enacted against all groups of marginalized people. We must advocate for the removal of all systemic barriers, both blatant and subtle, to the full social inclusion of transgender and non-binary people. We must stand lockstep in opposition to the hateful and oppressive rhetoric permeating our political discourse and resulting in these all too common tragedies. We must further honor, promote, and empower the voices of transgender people and commit ourselves to advocate for the gender-affirming care that people need to thrive.
It is our opportunity and our mandate to translate words into action through advocacy, on-the-ground practice, standing in the values of our profession to work tirelessly to, through collaboration and community, create the kind of positive change our society and world needs.
--
Shari E. Miller, PhD
Pronouns: She, her hers
Dean and Professor
Stony Brook University
School of Social Welfare
