Make no mistake. Trans people, especially trans women, are the canary in the coal mine. If the United States government manages to pass legislation making it essentially illegal to be trans again, mark my words it WILL continue on up to sending us right back into McCarthyism and the “kill or imprison anything you disagree with or dislike” policies of the 1950s (not that that hasn’t already been happening under the radar, but it’s going to be More).
There really are people out there who are acting like suggesting genetic testing to “confirm the identity” of a group of people isn’t a wildly dangerous thing for a government to start doing. This is not a door that should be opened.
we’re not the canary. People already died in this mine, it’s unsafe, but those in charge keep sending us in. This government has already illegally incarcerated innocent people, made false arrests and annulled citizenship based on ethnicity, stolen children from loving parents and given them to white, straight, cisgender christians. This government has enacted and encouraged policies around identification, citizenship, proof of being who you say you are and a citizen of where you live, that are only enforced when the people enforcing them decide they don’t like your skin tone, religion, politics. This government has made every effort possible to ensure that the physically and mentally disabled and chronically ill citizens will die faster while also forcing us to thicken the wallets of those who want us gone. This government is doing its damnedest to erode religious protections except for Good Old Fashioned American Christianity, which is being granted privileges and special rights to discriminate against people who don’t fit its narrow view of morality. This government is making the richest people richer, and convincing the poorest people that it’s good for them by turning them against their best allies.
trans people, especially trans women, are not the canary. We’re not a distraction, either, in spite of what some other people are saying. We are yet another in a long list of groups threatened by an administration that pushes fascist policy after fascist policy. And if we’re going to be a metaphor, we should be the last straw.
Tag: ableism
Many people know that vaccines were linked to autism by a fraud and con artist who just wanted to sell his own alternative vaccines.
What a lot of people DON’T know is that he had no reason to choose autism for this scam except that it had JUST started entering mainstream consciousness and was still barely understood by most people. He took advantage of ignorance and confusion already surrounding a hype train and it could have been anything but it happened to be Autism at that particular time.
That’s how fucking meaningless the connection is.
Wakefield didn’t just claim it caused autism–he also claimed it caused an inflammatory bowel disease. That didn’t quite capture the public imagination the same way, though…
I was once in a debate with somebody over “Hey, maybe don’t try to make every disabled character ace, and don’t get excited over my disabled characters as ‘oh are they ace representation?’ because as a disabled person, we’re so often dehumanized and our sexualities are erased, as people ‘just can’t think of us that way’.” and the response I got was “oh so u hate aces :(?” like. Hon. Did you not just hear me.
iconic
Benedict Cumberbatch
(With help from alltheladiesyouhate and rotationalvelocitydensity)
- Compared autistic people to Frankenstein’s Monster while talking about his part as the Creature in a production of Frankenstein: “It’s basically being a man child, it’s being a man infant. And then, psychologically, Danny and Nick Dear, who’s adapted the Mary Shelley novel, into a brilliant 2 ½ hour play version of it, he, they both have autistic sons. So we went to two extraordinary schools and met some high spectrum autistic kids. And it was very, very humbling and amazing and very upsetting, but very, very extraordinary as well, and inspiring. And especially the people looking after them, and these amazing life forces, but just formed with…*sigh* um, socially just things that are outside of everyday. You know, there are certain barriers that aren’t there because of the arrested development that… there was a 17 year old that had the mental age of, I think, an 18 month old. I mean, it was… It’s…it’s…it’s really really extraordinary and very upsetting. And uh, it was important for them to realize that the Creature in their story was not their… the monster of old… the monster of the gothic horror stories. He’s very much an innocent. He’s very much someone who is carried through life, as someone who is so different, not only because of his appearance, but because of these behaviorial tics, which are very autistic, um, both in his understanding of the world, psychologically and emotionally, but also physically as well, how that manifests later in his body. And so that was the major part of the preparation.” (Explanation/ analysis at the link)
- Said he had been “castigated as a moaning, rich, public-school b******, complaining about only getting posh roles”
- About the 2011 London riots: “ ”I’m a Prince of Wales Trust ambassador, so I’m all about giving youth an education, a voice and a chance to not take the wrong road. But those eejits saying they’re doing it for socio-political reasons? Fuck off, no you’re not, you’re on a jolly and you’re getting away with it. It makes me want to belt them, make them lame for a bit so they’re dependent on other people’s mercy… It’s very hard for me to talk about it, because I came from an incredibly privileged bubble so the minute I open my mouth I can sense the comeback of, ‘What the fuck do you know?’ And that’s fair. But my sympathy is with the people who do know what they’re talking about, who have been brought up on estates and live morally decent, contributing lives and who have seen opportunists destroying all their work.“
- About Elementary, the American version of Sherlock ”I did say [to Jonny], ‘Well, I’d prefer you didn’t do it but you’ve got a kid to feed, a nice house in LA and a wife to keep in good clothes.’ When you get used to a certain standard of living and they waft a paycheck at you, what are you going to do?“
- “I look in a mirror and I see all the faults I’ve lived with for 35 years and yet people go kind of nuts for certain things about me.”
- “I know I’m no technical expert but I do love trying to sort of dance with the camera. And he knows I’m a tart for it”
- “Those slightly mad eyes which became sadly a lot madder which became part of the tragedy of Jeremy’s life”
- “Martin has much more intuitive brilliance than I have which would make him an asexual sociopath. Not that Martin Freeman is an asexual sociopath but he’s just far quicker at thinking than I am.”
- Said he thought Sherlock’s haircut was “womanly”
- “Being a posh actor in England, you can’t escape class-typing, from whatever side you look at it. I realised quite early on that, although I wasn’t trying to make a career speciality of it, I was playing slightly asexual, sociopathic intellectuals” Wow that must be so hard for you Benny. You should go complain to some POC actors who can’t get work because of the massive racism and whitewashing in the entertainment industry. I’m sure they’ll feel really bad for you.
- About the Victoria Era: “Everyone was held in their place, but what was honourable about it was that there was a duty of care from the top down”. White Man’s Burden, anyone?
- “I want to be able to play trailer-bound fatties in a Judd Apatow comedy”
- “In America I could play everything from trailer-trash to Harvard-educated”
- Recently performed a reading of R. Kelly’s “Genius,” a mockery designed to show the “absurdity” of the lyrics, which reinforces the class and race hierarchy.
- Misgendered Chelsea Manning in an interview with The Guardian
- Defended Julian Assange and claimed the sexual assault charges against him were just “character defamation"
Call-In Day to #StopTheShock at the JRC
If you haven’t already, it’s a great time to join our national Call-In day and ask the FDA to #StopTheShock!
We’ve got a script, tips, and additional steps you can take on our event page here: Find out how here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1705681299524875/
I called earlier today and following the script made my phone anxiety a lot better! Check out the link they provided for more info.
If you’re on a phone right now, or have your phone in your pocket, you might as well call.
This isn’t trans-related, but it’s really important. The info below is from ASAN, the OP.
What’s happening?
- The Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) is an institution in Massachusetts for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), mental health disabilities, and learning disabilities, including many autistic people. To learn more about the JRC, click here.
- The Judge Rotenberg Center tortures some of the people living there using an electric shock device called a Gradual Electronic Decelerator (GED).
- Children and adults at the JRC are forced to wear the GED on their bodies. Using a remote control, someone else can use the GED to give an electric shock to the person wearing it.
- The people who are being held and tortured at the JRC are disproportionately people of color.
- Because of the way the GED has hurt people, the United Nations put out a report calling the use of the GED “torture”.
Wait, isn’t that illegal?
- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded you can’t use the GED without significant harm, and recommended a ban.
- They drafted final regulations which would ban the use of electric shock devices as aversives.
- This was in 2014, but the FDA still has not released the regulations.
- To make this illegal, we need to get the FDA to release the regulations they drafted banning this. Until then, places can continue to use electric shocks to punish disabled children and adults.
What can we do?
- Call the office of FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb at (301) 796-5000, and ask the FDA to release the regulation
- Email Commissioner Gottlieb at CommissionerFDA@fda.hhs.gov, and CC: the FDA at DICE@FDA.hhs.gov. Use the subject line Judge Rotenberg Center . You can use the same script for calling.
- Sign the petition to have the FDA release a regulation against the use of GED.
- Spread the word on social media using the hashtag #StopTheShock.
Here’s ASAN’s script, which you can modify as needed:
My name is [NAME] and I am from [City, State]. I’m calling on Commissioner Gottlieb to ban the GED shock devices used at the Judge Rotenberg Center. The FDA has had a final rule to ban these devices ready since 2016, but the Commissioner still hasn’t released it. Every day, disabled people are being tortured with these devices. Commissioner Gottlieb needs to immediately release the rule banning the GED. We’ve waited long enough.
Procrastination Station 