What "disability rights is a joke" actually means

Content note for uncomfortable truths about abuse, neglect, and murder. Also for sardonic tone.

Remember I wrote back in February about Skepchick's big ableist mess and double down and triple down?

Remember that bit where they decided that I'm not a real person but instead a 4chan troll identity who exists to make social justice look bad? Because "disability rights is a joke"?

Maybe you think you're an anti oppression activist & have thought that, or you have friends who express that, who think that ableism isn't really and that disability rights is ridiculous. Before you get on that train, sign on to that idea, think about what you're really saying:

You are saying that the right of disabled people to live in places that aren't institutions is a joke.
You are saying that our right to an education is a joke. Young disabled people who should never have had to become symbols have done so, just advocating for their right to go to their neighborhood schools.
You are saying our right to adequate medical care is a joke. People are denied organ transplants every day because of disability, and apparently that just tickles your funny bone.

You are saying that curb cuts and talking walk lights at intersections are absurd. You are saying that ASL interpreters and elevators and ramps and Braille and automatically opening doors and kneeling buses are worthy of ridicule. That you get your jollies thinking about the disabled people killed by police--how many neurodivergent and Deaf people, particularly PoC, were injured or killed by law enforcement? A lot, that's how many.

You are saying that the very idea that a disabled person abused or killed by a caregiver might, you know, deserve justice? Is preposterous. Never mind that we have a much higher rate of being murdered and abused than non disabled people do. Never mind that our killers are portrayed with sympathy. The part that baffles you is the part where we seek justice.

And the hilarity just doesn't end there!

You think my right to sexual autonomy is a joke. Judges have declared that people are too disabled to have been raped. Not that forcible sexual acts didn't take place, but that they don't count because the victim is disabled. Yuk it up, because there are jurisdictions where people with certain disabilities are considered unable to consent to sex. Isn't that just so funny, that we are considered unrapeable and yet when we choose to engage in sexual activity we need to be protected from our own inability? Bet you're just busting a gut. Will you pee yourself when I tell you that frequently, disabled people are placed on birth control or sterilized without consent? I can just see the tears of mirth running down your face as I tell you that this serves to protect people who serially sexually assault disabled people. Oh I didn't mention your favorite part of the joke, did I? The part where over 90% of disabled women are sexually assaulted, many over 10 times.

Still laughing?

It's autistics speaking day...and I have not much to say

Today is I think the third? anniversary of the day some Australian group decided that not using social media was analogous to understanding being autistic. And a couple friends of mine said "ummm how about you listen to us instead?" and it's still going strong.

My first post on this blog was for that Autistics Speaking Day. This post is too. Except I don't have a whole lot to say.

I've been saying the same things for half my life. I've had to say the same things for half my life because people, on the whole, don't listen. I don't have much new to say because that would build on the old. Until the old is heard the new won't make sense.

I dearly love making sense, even though it tends to make angry people who don't want to understand.

If you are a parent, your child still needs to know they are the child you wanted and dreamed and hoped for. That isn't going to change, though I'm sad I have to keep saying it. If you are an Autistic person, you are a person who deserves to be treated as such. If you are my friend, know that I love you fiercely. If you are my community member & I haven't met you yet, welcome.

Maybe next year there will be call to say something new, instead of self echolalia. Echolalia is also communication, though, so it will meet my needs for now.

Image is a beaded bracelet that says YES on one side & NO on the other. It's a way of speaking when mouthwords won't work.