ANNAPOLIS–Eric Carpenter-Grantham received the same talk about law enforcement interactions that most other young Black men receive, but it differed slightly because he has autism.
If police approach him, his mother told him to yell, ‘I have autism and someone call my mom.”
“I remember I told my mom, ‘I can do that,’ but I was starting to cry,” he said.
Carpenter-Grantham and his mother worked together to come up with a solution – and now late this year that solution is taking effect with a new special designation on the Maryland driver’s license to note when the holder has an invisible disability.
It all began in the summer of 2020 after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police. Like many other Black parents, Carpenter-Grantham’s mom sat him down and told her then-15-year-old son what to do if police in their Montgomery County neighborhood pulled him over.
He was confident that he would be able to follow his mother’s instructions: put your hands up, don’t reach for your phone and make it known that you have autism. But he was concerned about his friends with autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other hidden disabilities.
“Mom, I have an idea,” he recalls saying. “I would like to put something on the [state] IDs so that the police know that me and my friends have autism so they don’t hurt us.”
So, together with his mom, he worked his way through the Maryland legislature to ultimately write Eric’s ID Law. Enacted in October, the law requires Maryland’s Motor Vehicle Administration to allow applicants to indicate their hidden disability on their drivers’ licenses.
Carpenter-Grantham and his mother, Linda Carpenter-Grantham, met with Maryland Sen. Will Smith (D – Montgomery County) in July 2023.
“Eric, I’m gonna write this bill,” she recalled Smith saying.
Opposition from disability groups slowed the bill. But the pair kept pushing.
“This is a law for all people with invisible disabilities,” Linda said, regardless of their race or gender.
The bill’s co-sponsors — Smith, along with Del. Jheanelle Wilkins (D – Montgomery County) and Del. Kym Taylor (D- Prince George’s County) — were their “dream team,” Linda said.
That’s when their efforts picked up momentum. Calls and letters from supporters from across the country. Meetings with television personalities like Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd. National organizations and local law enforcement agencies voicing their support.
Last February, Eric Carpenter-Grantham testified at the State House in favor of his law.
“I would like to ask ALL the state senators and House of Delegates from the bottom of my heart to please pass [HB707],” he wrote in his submitted testimony. “Because we need change. If things don’t change people with invisible disabilities will continue to be hurt and killed.”
Gov. Wes Moore approved the bill in May, exactly three months after Carpenter-Grantham’s testimony. It went into effect on Oct. 1.
Now, the family is working to get the law passed in other states, too.
“It’s been a lot of tears and a lot of praying along the way,” said Linda Carpenter-Grantham, Eric’s mother. “Nobody said it was going to be easy. But Eric and I just have to stay in our faith and know and believe that.”
