Queer Disability Letter to the Editor in Bay Windows

I don't know if anyone has been following this, but a group at Harvard Law sponsored a conference in February on the LGBT Health Gap.

A journalist from the New England Bay Windows wrote a rather bland story last week reporting that the conference panelists agreed -- a health gap really does exist for those in the LGBT community. Ethan Jacobs, the reporter, even did a really nice job mentioning that LGBT people of color especially experience the health gap. He mentioned transgender experiences and issues that were raised by conference members, but as a journalistic piece, I'd hafta say it was pretty much a bowl of oatmeal. Comforting but not challenging. Or maybe the conference was just boring. How would I know? After all, I live in California and can't attend, that's why I depend on the internet.

Then things got interesting.

Yesterday two LGBT panelists from the conference wrote the Bay Windows saying incredibly cool and astute things. Samuel Lurie and Andrea Neuman seemed to suggest the Bay Windows may have missed some of what really went down at the conference. And boy am I glad they piped up.

Here's what Lurie and Neuman said:
"...[the conference] raises bigger questions about ableism within the queer community and the false separations between people with disabilities and LGBT people, separations that represent a competitive oppression that is divisive and destructive for all of us."

Me here: I'm so excited that others see this, too! Our own LGBT community sometimes separates and oppresses us, and the word for that is ABLE-ISM. It's competitive. It's wrong, and it's got to stop. I'm happy something like that was brought out at the conference, which, after all, was supposed to be about health gaps in the queer community. I mean, who better than the queer disabled community experiences a health gap, and the ableism surrounding that? Would there even be an LGBT health gap if it weren't for us disabled folks? One would think it is our existence that defines the issues the conference was addressing in the first place. I would think our fight against ableism ought to be front and center, not some letter to the editor.

They go on to say this:
"Most of us do not believe that being queer is such a lowly state that we should at all costs avoid being identified as such. How is it that we are, in the same breath, so comfortable reinforcing the idea that being perceived as a person with a disability is in fact so devastating that it should be used only covertly if it carries with it the possibility of access to resources?"

Me here: In a way, they're talking about "passing" as non-disabled. Have you ever tried to do that? Sucks, huh. Nothing wrong with who we are in the first place. And in another way, they're talking about shaming. That also sucks, and they're right to call out the LGBT community for even trying to do it to us.

Then they bring it, with this:
"Not only is it a myth that disabled people currently have access to the resources they need, queer disabled people are routinely denied access or specifically excluded from queer resources. This includes queer-focused health care, gay bars and queer events..."

I gotta chime in: That's just the tip of the iceberg. Queer disabled folks sometimes are made to feel uncomfortable or pressured while participating in straight-but-gay-friendly culture, while non-disabled queer folks -- who sometimes help run those cultural events or who have helped make those events gay-friendly in the first place -- are quite welcome. In other words, some LGBT ableists who move in straight circles sometimes spread or enable oppression of disabled queers in those newly opened circles. It's offensive, hypocritical, and competitive. It's morally unacceptable. And it's not limited to strictly social settings, it can happen in health care, in education, in the workplace, in government, and even in churches and synagogues. And yeah, I've heard of this reaching the point where a lesbian or an ally finds out what your needs are, and then specifically says they won't accommodate, even where they would provide those accommodations as courtesies for someone who isn't disabled.

And they hella closed with this:
"Rather than reinforce the stigmatization and invisibility of queer disabled people, let's recognize - and celebrate - that people with physical and psychiatric disabilities are in fact a significant part of our community. We cannot afford to continue to struggle at the expense of any part of our community. It is destructive to all of us."

Me again: Right on. And Amen.