When you hear “Make America Healthy Again” ask yourself this… healthy for whom? When was America healthy?
It’s not about health. It’s about thinning the herd. Culling the weak.
It’s about assigning blame to people with chronic illness & pushing health supremacy.
It’s straight from the Nazi playbook.
“I don’t know how you do it! I could never be chronically ill!”
We didn’t get a choice. No one asked our permission. Disability just happens. It can happen to you too.
We cope because we have no choice. We can’t trade our bodies in for new ones. We can’t “try harder” our way out of it.
“Unfortunately most people can’t process the lack of choice in the matter. They genuinely believe that we either want to be this sick, or could get better if we really ‘tried’. They believe they wouldn’t be able to handle what we go through, because they’re convinced they will never NEED to handle it. They’re the exception. Chronic illness won’t happen to them”
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/why-are-chronically-ill-people-forced
When I started The Disabled Ginger I sent it to my friends and family … as most of us do.
I was proud that I was finally standing up for disability rights. That I was taking my pain and putting it on the page in an effort to help others. That I had found something that lit a spark inside me.
Unfortunately, many of my friends didn’t feel the same way.
My disabilities are invisible, and I had become very good at hiding them. Apparently that’s what people expected of me, as they didn’t like this “new” version of Kelly.
Almost none of my friends subscribed. What’s worse, many stopped talking to me. Or would only reply in brief texts.
It’s almost been a year since I launched, and my circle is noticeably smaller. Many people I thought I was close with haven’t reached out for nearly 6 months.
When you find your purpose and your passion, it’s an incredible feeling. Hopefully people support you.
Not everyone will. And that’s ok.
It’s painful seeing so many relationships fade away. It hurts knowing they don’t see the value in me now that I’m “officially” disabled.
As painful as it is, it’s also a perfect example of why I became an advocate. Ableism is a huge problem. Being disabled can be incredibly lonely. I wanted to give a voice to those who haven’t yet found theirs.
In the process I’ve met incredible people from all over the world who inspire me to keep going. Who give me a reason to write every day. Who remind me of the compassion, love and goodness that’s still out there.
Thank you to each and every one of you. I couldn’t do this alone.
My latest looks at the reasons we hide, and what would happen if we all decided to stop hiding and show the world the realities of chronic illness:
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/why-are-chronically-ill-people-forced
RFK Jr renames HHS to AHA (Administration for Healthy America)
This video drips with eugenicist language. Clean water, safe food & a healthy environment (read “wellness camps”) won’t cure chronic illness
There’s nothing wrong with those things, but to insinuate they will “fix” the chronic disease epidemic is ableist and dangerous.
He goes on to say the real overhaul will be even bigger & improve the health of the entire nation.
Will they disappear the disabled?
There's a playbook to how fascists work - they target groups that the majority doesn't care about or actively fears/despises (as a result of hegemonic training).
UC Access Now and disabled workers' experiences with UAW bore this out - when it came to attacks on disabled workers, most abled workers were fine with it or even agreed with ableist management.
Deserting disabled people as a sop to the powerful only shows them how easily you cave & they expand the tactics to abled people eventually.
Dismantle your own ableism now before fascists dismantle you.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2025/mar/27/us-disability-rights-trump #Fascism #Ableism #Capitalism #Union #Labor #HigherEd
@IndivisibleSF I would like to boost this, but without alt text it is not accessible to those using screenreading software.
You can change that by transcribing the text you're giving sighted people, plus adding a description of what the graphic is showing. https://edtechfactotum.com/adding-alt-text-and-more-to-images-in-mastodon/ #Accessibility #Ableism #Transportation
Me at ER for cardiac issues
Dr: “Could you be pregnant?”
Me: “No I had a hysterectomy”
Dr: “You look too young for that? Are you sure?”
Me: “I’m confident”
Dr: “I think you might be confused. Maybe it was your appendix.”
Proceeds to order pregnancy test
I’ve had this interaction more times than I can count
Healthcare workers think I’m “too young” to have had a hysterectomy and automatically assume I’m confusing my womb with another organ.
They ask endless questions, only to end up doing a pregnancy test anyways
Perhaps there are patients who confuse their uterus for their appendix, but I would imagine that’s exceedingly rare
The battle I went through to get my hysterectomy was long and arduous. It involved many physicians lecturing me about how I would never be able to have children
Asking insensitive questions like:
“Don’t you want to be a Mom?”
“You might want biological children, many women do”
“What happens if you meet your dream man and he leaves you for being barren?”
You don’t have to endure this type of insulting and misogynistic third degree to get your appendix or gallbladder removed.
They inform you of the surgical risks, you consent, the end.
There’s simply no plausible way to confuse the removal of a WOMB with an appendix
Despite these obvious facts, I’ve had countless doctors assume I’m wrong. That I couldn’t possibly have lost my uterus and it must have been something less important.
I’ve even had “patient CLAIMS hysterectomy”’written in my chart.
Why someone would lie about something so easy to prove or disprove is beyond me.
The end result is always a delay in care while we argue and then wait for an unnecessary pregnancy test which always comes back negative.
Surely we can do better?
I understand that doctors must have a degree of skepticism, and that the price of missing a pregnancy can be incredibly high.
I’m not opposed to them running a pregnancy test if that’s what they feel they need to do.
I am opposed to the delays and gaslighting
It was traumatic to lose my uterus at a young age. The healthcare workers who inundated me with misogynistic questions & put a hypothetical man before me and my health? They didn’t make it any easier.
I feel that trauma all over again whenever I’m questioned about pregnancy
I wish we could endeavour to either TRUST our patient, or just run the pregnancy test without all the unnecessary and (often) rude comments.
I don’t object to the test, I object to the way I’m treated leading up to the test.
Patients know their body best. We know the difference between a womb and an appendix. We know when we’re being talked down to and mistreated.
It causes trauma. Makes us less likely to trust the provider and far less likely to seek care in the future
Please treat your patients with the dignity they deserve. Don’t judge them on how they look, the chronic illness or disability they have or their gender or sexual orientation. Listen to them. Work with them. Let them be a partner in their care.
We can do better together /end
After the hysterectomy I also had a post op complication that was ignored by the ER three times. I had a life threatening internal bleed, but was sent home without tests because they thought I was “exaggerating”.
We MUST listen to patients. I only survived because my accidental advocate stepped up
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/my-most-dangerous-er-experience-and
This cruelty towards the Vulnerable is supposed to inspire 'consumer confidence' is it?
It's disgusting to pick on people like this, it's Trumpian
I hate hate hate how when "progressives" mention Social Security, they usually only mention seniors. Because when you become disabled later, it's "normal" and when you become disabled earlier, it must be because you're faking or you're not taking good care of yourself or other bullshit.
SSDI is just as earned as retirement Social Security is. The "I" is for "Insurance". YOU PAY INTO IT when you're in the workforce. #USpol #Ableism
Time is running out to fight the New York mask ban!
They’re to sneak it into the budget, and once again folks are claiming it’s “fine” because there’s a medical exemption
These bans criminalize masks, Including medical masks like N95s
Medical exemptions are NOT the answer
https://www.disabledginger.com/p/nassau-county-ny-makes-masking-illegal
Too bad 404media uses ableist slurs, labels used for eugenics. You don't fight fascists with fascism.
Today In Labor History March 26, 1910: Congress amended the Immigration Act of 1907 to specifically bar entrance of “paupers, anarchists, criminals and the diseased.” The amendment was specifically designed to limit entry of Eastern and Southern European immigrants, many of whom were becoming radicalized by the deplorable working and living conditions in late 19th and early 20th century America. The law came in the midst of a wave of anti-immigrant hysteria, whipped up by government and media-generated pro-eugenics propaganda. The original law included the following statement of “undesirables” to be prohibited entry into the United States: “All idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons, and persons who have been insane within five years previous; persons who have had two or more attacks of insanity at any time previously; paupers; persons likely to become a public charge; professional beggars; persons afflicted with tuberculosis or with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease.”
$5 million gold card anyone?
Disabled In Space 
"Since the beginning of the space program, we've always expected astronauts to be fully abled athletic overachievers who are one-part science-geek, two-parts triathlete—a mix the writer Tom Wolfe famously called 'the right stuff.'
But what if, this whole time, we’ve had it all wrong?
In this episode, [legally blind] reporter Andrew Leland joins a #blind linguistics professor named Sheri Wells-Jensen and a crew of eleven other disabled people on a mission to prove that disabled people have what it takes to go to space.
And not only that, but that they may have an edge over non-disabled people."
https://radiolab.org/podcast/right-stuff
(both audio and transcript available)
@Curia Hello. The image is not made accessible through alt text. Which means you're cutting out potential blind and low vision applicants from getting the same information you're giving sighted ones.
You can correct that by transcribing the exact same text as is in the image into the alt text field of the image editing window. https://edtechfactotum.com/adding-alt-text-and-more-to-images-in-mastodon/ #Accessibility #Ableism #Law #EU
URGENT! please help my disabled friend moo survive US fascism! it desperately needs a new desk chair. his sibling broke the one it had, the substitute chair it's using causes severe back & hip pain. he also needs help covering food & bills. its abusive parent steals its food despite him being disabled & unemployed.
$200/400
- https://cash.me/$melaninpony
- https://paypal.me/melaninpony
- https://throne.com/sparklejinx/
- https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/19TE8UE2TYCM4
@mutualaid @blackfedi #mutualAid #MutualAidRequest #BlackTransMutualAid #transMutualAid #transCrowdfund #trans #queer #furry #disabled #disabilityMutualAid #disabilityCrowdfund #disability #ableism #LGBTQIA #LGBTQ #BlackMutualAid #BlackTransMutualAid #otherKin #plural #chronicPain #queerMutualAid #QueerCrowdfund
cw: eye contact
@voxofgod the Commonwealth doesn't want the USA, that's not going to happen. Also, I'm kinda of getting the impression you think it's a bit like the EU? Commonwealth is basically just the old British colonies kinda maintaining some cultural (and sometimes head of state) ties after independence. In practice it just means some countries like Canada and Australia still have the UK monarch as a powerless head of state. We don't get freedom of movement like the EU gets. I don't think we even get special visa conditions.
In practical terms, being a member of the Commonwealth means your country gets to take part in the Commonwealth games. And maybe extra diplomatic help in other Commonwealth countries if you don't have an embassy there. Um. That's it afaik 
Btw New Zealand is not disability friendly for immigration. There was a big story a few years ago where a British man was offered a high paying job there and was told he can take his wife and older child, but his disabled daughter was not given residency.
When trying to find the article, I found these:
https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/26/family-denied-visa-daughter-downs-syndrome-9022812/
https://www.liveaction.org/news/new-zealand-denied-residency-teenage-girl-syndrome/
Long Covid research funding and grants terminated by Trump regime. They’ve declared them a “waste of time” because the pandemic is over:
“HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.”
400 million people have Long COVID. They’re suffering in silence with little hope of treatment and/or cures.
If HHS and Trump were actually interested in addressing the chronic disease epidemic, they would care about long COVID. They would try and reduce the spread of COVID.
When you hear “Make America Healthy Again” please consider HOW they plan to do that.
We’ve seen zero evidence that they will actually help those with chronic illness.
Fascists target the disabled. The Nazis literally tested the gas chambers on us. We are almost always first.
Perhaps they’re ending the chronic illness epidemic by ending the chronically ill? Don’t provide research, care, funding or treatment and the problem “goes away”?
Get loud. Call your elected officials. Tell them Covid is not over.
Not the first time I've heard an attendee talking about how "everyone got COVID" attending SNL 50.
https://youtu.be/jlee0GEFgKk?si=TWE8oC7tcjsIyoER&t=553 #Pandemic #PublicHealth #Ableism
Trike Talk - Ep 5 - Motorizing Your Recumbent Trike MADE EASY
The horrendous fatphobic (and acoustic riders are the "real victims") comments on this video are indicative of how far the cycling community has to go yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3DeRtvIRA #Trike #Recumbent #BikeTooter #Cycling #Ableism #Fatphobia @fedibikes
