Unveiling America’s Dark Secret: The Shocking ‘Ugly Laws’ That Erased Disabled Lives from Public View
The Decline Of ‘Ugly Laws’
It took decades and countless hours of work from disability advocates to repeal ugly laws across the country.
Disability rights advocates Marcia Pearce Burgdorf and Robert Burgdorf Jr. highlighted these laws by coining the term “ugly law” in the 1970s, shining a light on the rules themselves and their cruelty.
An article they wrote became part of a rapidly expanding disability rights movement that reframed disability discrimination as a civil rights issue — and the government slowly started to take notice. For example, in 1973, disability discrimination was prohibited in federally funded programs, though activists argued that enforcement was lackluster.
Public DomainPresident George H. W. Bush signing the Americans with Disabilities Act into law in 1990.
All the while, ugly laws were slowly being challenged and repealed across the country. By 1974, Chicago had finalized the repeal of its own ugly law, making it the last place in the country to do so.
Less than two decades later, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law. The ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in areas including employment, government services, transportation, and public accommodations. Today, people with disabilities still face incredible legal challenges — though “ugly laws” are thankfully not one of them.
After reading about the “ugly laws” that were once enacted across the United States, go inside the American eugenics program that inspired the Nazis. Then, meet some of the living Americans who were forcibly sterilized by the government.
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