Yes Cullen said those words - awaiting a reply from him

Hi all

An update - some folks have said that Cullen was misquoted in the media saying:

“This bill is going to allow children to keep their hearing, to become members of society, to go to school and keep a job.”

AFA understands that it is easy to be misquoted or taken out of context. The statement was made on April 23 and carried by the Associated press in radio, TV and print outlets.

Cullen's office never made any public attempt to retract the statement or clarify the context in which it was stated. AFA sent Rep. Cullen a letter Thursday at 12:05 am asking for an apology for this statement and inviting him to learn more about audism.

We received no reply. We called his office today to:
1. confirm that Rep. Cullen made this statement - the answer was YES he said those words.

2. ask for a reply to AFA's letter. The staff member said they did not receive any email from AFA. AFA checked that our email address for them was correct and yes it was. We also confirmed that our email was sent out of our gmail account successful with no bounce back or notification that it failed to deliver.

3. AFA has re-sent our letter to Cullen's office and also invited, Cullen to reply with an apology for the statement and clarification that we could post on our public website.

4. AFA also took the opportunity to make sure Rep. Cullen's office was familiar with the word Audism and the response was yes they were. AFA still took the opportunity to explain that while Rep. Cullen may have been quoted out of context - he did make that offensive statement, which indicates the believe that to hear and speak is superior to being Deaf and that is audism.

We look forward to a reply from Rep. Cullen