Notices by TheBird (thebird@ni.hil.ist)

I write this truth so all may understand the reality of Disability.

Disability is the one category, the one group, the one community that anyone can join at any time in their life for any reason. Disability is defined by people.

People can be born disabled. People may become disabled due to an infinite set of possible factors: Illness, injuries, accidents, disasters, work, play, and so on.

Disability is inclusive by default. People are of any skin color, any gender, any sexuality, any class, any nationality, any ethnicity, any religion, any disease, any illness.

Because anyone can enter into disability, it is inherently intersectional. All Disabled people have multiple identities that describe them and inform how they navigate the world. Thus we have to be intersectional so we can understand the multitude of oppressive systems that overlap and attack from multiple sides.

Disability is creative. Our survival in a world hellbent on making our lives miserable, impoverished, and painful requires us to create our own forms of joy and resistance. We build up mutual aids, underground communities, and organizing using the tools we have.

Disability intertwines with technology in that many of us must use the Internet, our phones, our computers to interact with others. Where we may need devices to breath, to sleep, to eat. Where we may need mobility aids to navigate the physical realm. Where we must use what we have and transform it into what we need. Many of us become cyborgs through our leverage of technology to ease our symptoms, pain, and to help foster our independence and connections. We require collective access, cross-movement solidarity, and a recognition of our wholeness outside of productivity or other measures.

Our needs are diverse, unique to each of us, and thus we burst forth with imaginative and creative ways to exist in spite of the world's ableism. We lead with the most impacted, we pace ourselves, we balance our symptoms with our healthcare with our other work.

Celebrating Disabled means I am recognizing that Disability, the group in which I exist currently, the truth that I am Disabled does not mean I am less-than, but that I am whole even if society refuses to recognize that. My limitations may make navigating our society harder, but it pushes me to declare and demand a more equitable, just, sustainable, accessible society. The creativity of Disabled activists, our ways of surviving despite our limitations, our talents and skills, our personhood is all to be celebrated.

To become disabled is to enter into a world of diversity and creativity.

To become disabled is to enter into the resistance against oppressive systems that harm and disable and kill.

To become disabled requires us to reckon with society's health supremacy lies. To realize bodies are diverse and unique in needs; to realize that everyone is deserving of love, of care, of support; to understand how everyone deserves to have their needs met. Holding onto bigotry harms and potentially kills us, and so that must be exorcised.

To become disabled is to enter into a journey of realization, of truth, of rediscovering who we truly are. We can't hide from the limitations of our bodies and minds anymore. We must bravely face those limitations and find a balance so we can live another day.

Our body/minds are rich and brilliant as they are. As the Disabled, we discover how body and mind are interdependent. How we cannot separate them. We are our bodies, we are our minds, we are both/and.

Disability isn't a cure. It cannot erase bigotry from our minds and bodies. It only redirects our gaze, intensifies the truth of our relations with one another, and whether we walk through that fire more compassionate and loving depends on our willingness to accept the uniqueness of one another, to let go of what no longer serves us. To grieve that former self, to exorcise the harmful socializations society instilled in us, and to open up one's mind and body to one another's truths.

Disabled and newly disabled and formerly disabled all have this chance to explore an alternate view of our reality. To see what has lain hidden under the oppressive systems that alienate, isolate, and exploit us. Some may bunker down within the bigotry society instilled in us, but others break free from that cage and be reborn into a fiery phoenix of relentless hope and compassion.

Our world is changeable. Nothing is set in impervious stone. It all can be broken down and repurposed.

Capitalism, cisgender-hetero-patriarchy, colonialism, imperialism -- these are all disabling systems. They eat up people and spit them out, and only a privileged few escape the jaws of exploitation. Those privileged few fall prey to the greed and power that turns them into monstrous beasts that devour yet more of us in their quest for more wealth, more power, more prestige. They can no longer see us and them as human beings equal in body and mind, and instead see themselves as beyond-human.

They cannot be reasoned with. They can only be stopped. Violence and fear is their language.

For the Disabled, it is not fear and violence by which we live. It is not our suffering that defines all that we are. Our suffering is but one piece of our stories.

Disability is defined by our rich history, our unique stories, our creative will to live, to find a way to survive, to help one another survive, to speak our truths no matter how vicious others become. To call out the harm perpetuated against us, to demand the healthcare we need to live, to speak truth to our pain and our small joys.

We have persisted throughout history. It is our community, our compassion, our love, our fierce struggle to live that gives us a power the oligarchs and capitalists will never have.

We can defeat the monstrous beasts that exploit, devour, destroy, disable, kill. We can win through the bonds of our diversity, through the truth of our body/minds, through our interdependence on each other, through our support and our demand for justice.

We have won before: won rights, laws, building of technology that aids us.

We can win again.

Not in spite of our disability but because of our Disabled selves.

#Disability #DisabilityJustice #TheBirdDisabilityManifesto #Manifesto #Justice #Organizing #Activism

#fediblock

ak.parcero.casa is full of transphobes and neonazis. They've been sending me horrific and transphobic death threats. And it looks like they do this do any trans person. I included a screenshot of one of the bad actors, but a warning that it's gruesome.

Be safe.

@nyanide

I wrote a post about how to build a safety plan with trans kids to help protect and honor them. It centered the child and showed how listening to the child can help with building plans on how to navigate various situations. In response, the transphobe sent what looks like death threats to me. Don't go tagging the transphobe to incite more.

This is my post link: https://ni.hil.ist/@TheBird/114084322688087091

edited in the link to my post.

Friend asked me on how to help her trans kid. I couldn't find a good guide for this, especially with states like Iowa stripping us of our rights.

I want to be clear that this should not be done without the child's input. Always, always trust the kid to understand and always give them the chance to participate. There are ways to adjust the language for the age of the child, and children often have creative ideas when given the chance to participate. The goal here is to give the child the tools to help them thrive, okay? Thanks for understanding.

So without further ado, here's steps on how to help trans kids navigate all of this.

1. Identify safe groups where the child can be themself. Remember, the child likely will have ideas on who to ask. So be sure to ask the child who they trust for this conversation.

*NOTE: Talk with those on the "trusted" list and/or leaders of the trusted groups and verify they will defend the kid's right to be themself and support them. (Child doesn't necessarily have to be present for this, but let the child know how it went to ease anxiety.)

2. Identify which friends are safe and will honor their pronouns. Again, the child will have ideas on this too. Make a list together!

3. Sit down with the kid and explain this process.

* (For my friend, I shared with them how I also wrote up a safety plan and harm reduction plan on how to navigate an increasingly hostile society such as my state stripping me of my civil rights. Having examples of others who have done this can help solidify the need and make it more approachable and less scary).

4. Share the list of groups and people who support the kid and will have their back 100%. (Be ready to hold those people accountable as a behind-the-scenes thing). Ask the kid if there are others they think you should work with to get them on board. Add them to the "talk to" part of the list."

5. Build a harm reduction and safety plan with the kid. This includes:

* Talk about how to handle strangers in public spaces in a way that avoids too much misgendering but also keeps the kid safe. (Maybe use only their name and avoid pronouns entirely for instance).
* Talk about how to handle medical professionals who are not known for being trans-friendly; how in those instances the kid will be wearing a "costume" as a safety strategy where they pretend to be x gender.
*Talk about parks and other public spaces.
*Talk about how to handle when meeting new people. How to test the water to see if it is safe to take off the 'x gender costume' or not.

6.Make sure the kid signs off on the harm reduction and safety plan, and that they feel included in it. Try to make it fun by drawing out scenarios, and explaining how sometimes we have to act like we're in a play for that scenario. We put on our "costume of x gender" and act out a play. Then when we are out of that scenario, we can take off our "costume of x gender" and enjoy being ourselves again around our safe groups and people.

(I'll write this up as a blogpost eventually. But for now, wanted to put it out there for folks to think about since transphobia and anti-trans legislation and policies are ramping up again. Please share any tips or resources you know of that can help!)

#Trans #Transgender #TransJustice #TransKids #Transphobia #SafetyPlan #HarmReduction #TrustKids #ChildAutonomy

@riotmuffin

I will never forgive the Leftists that stopped having virtual options, stopped masking, and basically gave in to the necrosecurity/eugenics/fascist bullshit. This leaving folks like me to die.

We could have built up more accessible, inclusive, just, and equitable movements.

But nooo, people threw that all away for what? A chance to see people's teeth in fake smiles?

Necrosecurity is an ideology where the deaths of our vulnerable populations are seen as needed to maintain social welfare and public order. That is why Biden and Trump both lied about Covid, as both parties ascribe to that ideology. Democrats hide it better, but it's still throwing away people and letting folks die when it's all preventable IF we normalized infectious disease mitigations and accessible virtual options.

I'm just so damn bitter over this.

@LeftistLawyer

@AnthonyJK

ugh, the science shows it's due to covid. there's even some studies showing many car accidents lately are due to the cognitive changes (brain fog, impulsivity, etc) covid can cause. covid damages the brain, heart, blood vessels, lungs, digestive tract, and our immune systems.

this is so infuriating when journalists refuse to recognize our reality!!

@NilaJones @cobalt123 Thank you. You read my intent correctly. I'm not interested about what is legal. Besides, some things that are morally right are often not legal (or becoming not legal thanks to DOGEyMuskbutt and Trumpocalypse).

Regardless of legality, we should focus on what is morally right, and do what we can to live that while keeping one another safe.

Centering accessibility in all of the spaces within our lives is morally and ethically right to do. Which is why I wrote the post.

@cobalt123 @NilaJones

I'm absolutely baffled as to why you read it as items addressed in the ADA when I did not once mention the ADA. I mentioned communities and what people are willing to do for disabled people and to work with disabled people.

My post is NOT about the ADA. It's about Leftist groups and our communities; how they can center accessibility to make their actions and events more inclusive for everyone.

My post literally covers actions and requests that go far beyond parking, ramps, and ASL interpreters. Maybe reread it? Because I'm not going to repeat it. I don't have the spoons for that.

I'm a disabled person so I am well aware of what "legally" ADA is supposed to cover but often fails to do so.

It's why I'm calling on communities and the people within those communities to step up. We can't rely on the government right now (disabled people often fall through the cracks anyway). This is why individuals within our communities need to work with us disabled people and build up stronger support networks that way.

I use the disability justice theory of "Spaces" to break apart the different aspects of accessibility to help people better understand all the many different ways accessibility can be built and/or be acted upon. I tend to go farther than some theorists by breaking it down even further. Mobility Justice by Mimi Sheller is what gave me the idea of spaces, as she writes about transportation space, physical space, and information space.

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha also discusses spaces in her book Care Work: Dreaming of Disability Justice.

Both books I highly recommend reading. I'm out of spoons now, so I'll stop there. Thanks!

So I really want to know how people are going to care for disabled folks in their communities going forward.

Are you going to include us?

Are you going to ask what our needs are and help us meet those needs?

Are you going to listen to us and always ask for our consent before you do Anything to assist us?

Are you going to make your events and activities accessible?

It's not enough to just make it physically accessible. Just because there's a ramp doesn't mean it's actually accessible.

To be fully accessible, you need to consider:

1. Physical Space -- Safety such as Air Filtration devices and mask wearing due to the fact most disabled folks are immuno-compromised. (Masks also are anti-fascist and make it harder to identify if the mask is a simply color like black or white). Are the doors easily opened without need of pushing or pulling? Ramps? Spaced out chairs, so wheelchairs can fit neatly into a spot instead of being relegated to back of room?

2. Digital space -- is there captions, transcripts, ASL translators? Are these easy to access? Is there a place transcripts are saved so those who run-out of energy and must leave earlier can read the transcripts in full?

3. Information space -- is there ways to contact one another and access documents that are easy to find? Is the documents set up for screenreaders to easily read? Are transcripts readily available and free of emojis and symbols to avoid tripping up screenreaders?

4. Transportation space -- is there places to park for us to easily exit vehicles? Are there people willing to pick us up and possibly leave earlier if we are unable to stay the entire time due to health? Are there people assigned roles to assist disabled folks who ask for help reaching the event?

5. Justice space -- are disabled people included in the organizing of the event? Are you utilizing the talents we offer? Are we included in the speaker line-up if there is one? Are you including Black or Indigenous Disabled people? Are you utilizing a diverse group of people's talents?

6. Sensory space -- does the event have a designated quiet area for people to go if overwhelmed so that they can recover and return to the main event? Is fragrances heavily discouraged to avoid triggering asthmatic attacks or allergic reactions? Is there simple-to-eat, gluten-free, and/or vegan options for those with dietary restrictions or texture issues?

Seriously, do the above and not only have you made your event/activity inclusive for disabled people, but you've also opened it up for all people who may need similar things but don't think they are allowed to ask for it.

If we aren't inclusive and accessible in our fight for liberation, then we are not engaging in liberation. We're just repeating oppressive tactics on our most vulnerable.

So really think hard about these questions. Talk it over with your organization, group, friends. Go over them slowly - don't rush this.

And please try not to leave disabled folks to die and rot again. We're just as important and worthy of life as any of you.

Thanks for reading. Good day

#Accessibility #Disability #Inclusion #Organizing

I really need people to understand that LGBTQIA people, our servers, and the things we discuss does NOT automatically mean NSFW.

Often the most blatant NSFW I've ever seen are from cishet folks.

This isn't to say some LGBTQIA folks can't be NSFW (they can), but it's the labeling ALL of us as such that's hurtful, problematic, and plays right into the conservative right's playbook of labeling us as sexual deviants to be erased from society.

Don't do that.

It's no surprise that Meta has declared transphobia and homophobia to be a-ok on their platform.

It was their hidden rule for the entire time Facebook existed, because trying to report both bigotries often ended with no actions taken by the moderation teams. And thanks to the demand of 'real name,' Facebook has outed trans people who used their new name rather than birth name (where many can't afford to shill out 300 or more dollars. That's how much my name change costed!).

So Meta just being up-front about what it already did for years is not a surprise. I guess with fascists in charge in the US, they feel free to be bigoted ass-shits.

It's #LongCovidAwarenessDay and I'm one of those folks with it. I struggle with just existing day to day. I am often relegated to my wheelchair or a rollator to get around now. I have a hand tremor now. Asthma developed after Covid too. I can't do chores without assistance, and I can't leave my house without help.

It fucking sucks. I spent a lot of my time online, and truthfully? I'm sick of being so ill. I lost my job due to it, and I've gone to a dozen specialists, all of whom don't know what to do about this illness.

We need more funding to research it. More mutual aid and community support for folks like me. We need people to organize about this and to include those of us affected. Don't leave us behind please. We matter too. #LongCovid #StillAlive

I don't know if I can or ever forgive Leftists who chose "convenience" and eugenics over people's lives and health.

Like, I don't know how to tell these people that by NOT engaging in pandemic mitigations and normalizing them within our cultures = aligning with fascists and eugenicists.

Maybe y'all don't want to hear that truth, but Covid doesn't care what you think. It damages all parts of the body. It's caused millions (in the US alone) to be trapped in the hell of LongCovid, and it's killed millions more.

We have tools that can decrease the deaths and disablements, and instead, Leftists gave up on their morals, threw it all away, and just left folks like me to die.

So yeah. I don't know how to forgive those folks or if forgiveness is even possible.

If you'd like to redeem yourself, then normalize pandemic mitigations. Fight against fascism and eugenics by taking this pandemic seriously. Work with folks like me and include us. Leave none of us behind ever again.

If y'all continue to not do that, then don't act surprised when disabled folks like myself and my allies treat you with suspicion and lack of trust. Your actions speak for yourself.

#MaskUp #PandemicMitigations #Pandemic #Covid #CovidIsNotOver #Leftists

@raphaelmorgan

Yup, this.

Sadly, in my community, there's far too many Leftist orgs that don't even mask at all. They are by far the ones I am most betrayed by and just so damn disappointed with.

And those that do mask, like you said, often aren't using the masks that could save lives.

It's just a mess.

I am pleasantly surprised that a friend who wanted to come visit me actually LISTENED and did a covid test to verify she doesn't have it, has a mask ready, and is willing to hang out with my air filtration unit.

This is so damn rare. What is even happening.

Am I that in shock over someone who is willing to do the BARE MINIMUM??

I guess I am.

But so many people can't be bothered, and because of those assholes, I am still ill with LongCovid that I got from them.

Anyway, please do the bare minimum.

#WearAMask

A friend pointed out to me that the CDC stopped being about health decades ago -- the moment it became politically appointed by the President during Reagan's term. At that point, it was at the whims of politics far more than health and/or science.

And I immediately quipped, "Well, okay, so Reagan is the apocalypse..."

My friend busted up laughing, then said, "Oh. You know, you're right."

Then the rest of the drive was quiet.

Questions for Leftists:

"Is your anarchy only allowing abled bodied people now? Do Disabled People, like myself, not matter to your movement? Are we not worthy of life and care? Do we not deserve the same access to information as you?"

Being inaccessible means excluding an entire swathe of people from the movement for equality, equity, justice, and autonomy. Anyone can become disabled at any time too, so being inaccessible means that someday the movement may end up excluding you.

Being inaccessible also means complicity and conscious or not agreement with the tenets of eugenics and white supremacy/abled-bodied supremacy. Both fight to erase disabled people of all identities and walks of life. When Leftism fails to be accessible, when they adopt these inaccessible approaches, they are taking from white-abled-bodied supremacy to oppress others. They have failed to be inclusive, to be just, to engage in collective care, and they betray the fight for justice.

Either your movement includes us -- nothing without us -- or your movement is part of the oppression that kills us.

In the fight for justice and for our right to exist, there is no middle ground here. Either be accessible in all avenues and include disabled people of all walks of life OR support those that wish to erase our existences.

Accessing information, accessing physical spaces, accessing transportation, accessing social platforms, accessing virtual spaces, accessing public spaces -- these are all the many elements of accessibility.

Accessibility is more than just AltText, ramps, doors that open with a button, and apps that work well with screenreaders.

Accessibility means that disabled people are able to access all the things abled-bodied people can access in all the spaces of life: physical space, transportation space, information space, community space, justice space, virtual space, and collective space.

To say that this is impossible to include everyone, to not even try to be inclusive and accessible? That is being complicit in oppression and eugenics.

Stop doing that.

It is possible to be accessible. It is possible to create a movement that LEAVES NO ONE BEHIND.

And if we are not willing to utilize our imagination to create that? If we fight against that and claim it's too hard?

Then what the fuck are we fighting for? Because it's not justice. It's not a future that will end oppression. It will only continue the oppressive institutions that harm and kill.

Leave No One Behind. Be Accessible. Talk with disabled folks like me and learn ways to be more accessible.

#Justice #LeaveNoOneBehind #Accessibility

@smitten That's my biggest issue to be honest. These are writers and artists specifically focusing on queer ships, so finding a spot that is safer for such stuff is my difficulty. I know of one on Firefish, but beyond that. I mostly know Mastodon servers. It's been frustrating. Thank you for boosting.

For my area, the voting was just city council stuff, so got a ride to show up and vote, because DAMMIT, I want someone who LISTENS TO ME, when I write in or call in about accessibility issues with the city. Because goddammit is it annoying to have to deal with cracked sidewalks OR NO sidewalks at all as an wheelchair user. Among other issues that I denote here: https://reshapingreality.org/2021/07/06/my-open-letter-to-city-designers/

But of course, the people I really needed to win?

Didn't fucking win because who turns out for city council elections far more than anyone else? Fucking Fascists and fascist-adjacent assholes. Those of us on the Left rarely turn up for city council votes, which irritates me a bit. The city stuff majorly impacts us, and we could take that over entirely if Leftists go out and do it. Just fucking take it over, I don't care how -- voting or autonomous occupation or whatever. Stop letting fascists vote in more fascists and fuck up our cities/towns more. Ugh.

I did curbside voting due to my health, but I wonder if my vote got counted.

I'm so irritated and frustrated. Now it's another two years of assholes NOT LISTENING to us disabled folks. Great.

This city fucking sucks.

@abolisyonista

Oh, this is fascinating. Going to deep dive and study this awhile. (I've been reading Bookchin lately and also John P. Clark -- who has an interesting critique of Bookchin's tendency to be Eurocentric.) So will be reading with that lens.