Kitty Cone 1944-2015

Kitty Cone 1944-2015

Kitty Cone was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, when she was fifteen, but that did not deter her from becoming an outspoken civil rights advocate. In addition to her work against the Vietnam War and poverty, Cone co-organized an historic sit-in protest of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that demanded the government implement a four-year old law, guaranteeing rights to people with disabilities. Instituting a new era of accessibility in public buildings and education, it forged coalitions of activists like Cone, who would work together and pass the Americans with Disabilities Act ( ADA) of 1990. Open lesbians, Cone and her blind partner Kathy Martinez were unable to marry or adopt children in the United States and consequently moved to Mexico, where they adopted a son.

“I am thankful for my disability. I feel like the constraints and the choices that it has given me have made me who I am. And, you know, I like who I am.” Kitty Cone