{"id":2017,"date":"2011-03-03T08:51:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T13:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=2017"},"modified":"2011-03-03T08:52:07","modified_gmt":"2011-03-03T13:52:07","slug":"dinniman-pushes-to-strike-the-r-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=2017","title":{"rendered":"Dinniman pushes to strike the ‘R-Word’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

State Sen. Andy Dinniman<\/p><\/div>\n

HARRISBURG \u2013 State Senator Andy Dinniman said his initiative to strike the phrase \u201cmental retardation\u201d from state statutes and state use is gathering steam throughout the Commonwealth after a Wednesday press conference that recounted all the new and different initiatives with that common goal.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, state Rep. Jake Wheatley (D-Allegheny) discussed his House Bill 789, the first bill on the matter introduced within the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, according to the ARC of Pennsylvania. Sen. Dinniman introduced Pennsylvania\u2019s very first \u201cWords Do Matter\u201d bill, in July 2010. In February, he reintroduced the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud to have introduced Pennsylvania\u2019s first bill to strike the \u2018R\u2019 word. More and more, people realize that words do matter when we are talking about individuals with intellectual disabilities,\u201d Dinniman said. \u201cMore and more, governments realize that we reflect our values, we reflect our attitudes and sometimes we even reflect our discriminations by the words that we use. \u2026 They also realize that when we change our words, we change our attitudes about others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Dinniman\u2019s bill, Senate Bill 458, specifically seeks to amend the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act of 1966 to rename it the Mental Health and Intellectual Disability Act of 1966. He said he is choosing to amend this act because it controls what term the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare formally uses for those with intellectual disabilities.<\/p>\n

Dinniman and Wheatley together listed the various successful and continuing initiatives that join their respective bills in attempting to strike the \u201cR\u201d word from official and common usage.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In March, 2010, Chester County struck from its use the word \u201cmental retardation\u201d.
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In October, President Obama signed \u201cRosa\u2019s Law\u201d, which mandates that federal statutes use the term \u201cintellectual disabilities\u201d instead of \u201cmental retardation.\u201d
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Jersey passed a law in August mandating that it no longer use the term \u201cmental retardation.\u201d Massachusetts made the change in 2008.
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 160,000 individuals have pledged to no longer use the \u201cR word\u201d through the website www.r-word.org.
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Governor Corbett issued a proclamation that declares this month as \u201cIntellectual Disability Awareness Month\u201d in Pennsylvania. The proclamation specifically mentions use of the proper terminology.<\/p>\n

For more information contact Senator Dinniman\u2019s Harrisburg Office at (717) 787-5709, or via e-mail at mindars@pasenate.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HARRISBURG \u2013 State Senator Andy Dinniman said his initiative to strike the phrase \u201cmental retardation\u201d from state statutes and state use is gathering steam throughout the Commonwealth after a Wednesday press conference that recounted all the new and different initiatives with that common goal. On Wednesday, state Rep. Jake Wheatley (D-Allegheny) discussed his House Bill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[217,242,69],"class_list":["post-2017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-community","tag-dinniman","tag-disabled","tag-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}