Regarding the politically motivated attacks in Minnesota
6/25/2025 4:09:01 PM
Melissa and Mark Hortman will lie in state in the Minnesota State Capitol Building on Friday, June 27. They will be joined by their golden retriever, Gilbert. Melissa Hortman will be the first woman and one of fewer than 20 Minnesotans to lie in state in the Capitol.
The Capitol Rotunda will be open to the public to pay their respects to the Hortmans from noon to 5 p.m. Friday.
The Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing is providing sign language interpreters from noon to 2:00 p.m. if you would like to attend during this time frame.
If you are DeafBlind or prefer to watch the video in a high contrast format, watch the DeafBlind friendlier ASL version instead. To adjust the video speed, use YouTube's playback speed tool.
The Commission is deeply horrified by the tragic assassination of House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, as well as the attack on Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Legislators are people first, and no one deserves to be attacked or have their loved ones harmed.
Each year, the Commission and community advocates work closely with legislators, and we know Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and Senator John Hoffman as friends of the disability community. Most recently, Senator Hoffman led the accessible prescription labels bill and the bill to update the Commission’s statute.
We also want to recognize state leadership and media partners for their efforts to make media briefings accessible to all Minnesotans through the inclusion of sign language interpreters and captions. At the same time, we recognize that there were still gaps in accessibility.
The Commission offers resources on the following:
Featuring Dr. Darlene G. Zangara, Executive Director. The Minnesota Commission of the Deaf, DeafBlind & Hard of Hearing thanks:
Sage Magee for voiceover.
Keystone Interpreting Solutions for film production.
legislation
