Many people see the deaf community as something that should ideally disappear by curing them.

I wonder if 100 years ago, the same activists would fight for survival of the leprosy community and its specific culture.

I can understand glorifying pathology if nothing can be done about it. It is a form of coping, similar to the coping that we usually engage in with regard to death. But once the underlying condition starts being curable and the glorifiers attempt to block treatment of children in the name of maintaining the pathology for future generations, they IMHO cross the line to outright evil.