Thread by @jayhandlin

EXCLUSION IS NOT PROTECTION

Peter Meijer, 31, heir to a multi-billion $ supermarket chain, is running for Congress, challenging @justinamash (who quit GOP over current admin policies) for MI3 seat. The award-winning @DragSyndrome was scheduled to perform at a venue Meijer owns.

https://twitter.com/jayhandlin/status/1165347884612706304

Meijer cancelled the #DragSyndrome appearance. Why? To “protect” them, he says.

Bullshit.

The members of the UK-based troupe have #DownSyndrome (as does my daughter). Never mind that they’re adults, talented, successful, with full agency, who’ve performed around the world...

Meijer says he knows better. Claims he’s “protecting” “differently-abled” people. (Hey Peter: say “disabled.” As in “Americans with Disabilities Act.”)

My daughter’s whole life, people tried to exclude her (violating IDEA, another federal law, btw). They called it “protection.”

They said she couldn’t handle the mainstream classroom environment, the social interactions, the curriculum. She could, and did.

She’s a college senior now. In May 2020, she’ll earn her BFA. She’s a photographer. Like the Drag Syndrome folks, an artist.

My daughter has accomplished these things because she was included, not excluded. Because she was encouraged, not “protected.”

So why doesn’t Peter Meijer *really* want @DragSyndrome at his venue, which was built specifically to promote artistic performance?

Apparently, Peter Meijer doesn’t think people with #DownSyndrome should do #dragshows. So he appointed himself to “protect” the performers.

C’mon, Peter, tell the truth. Drag shows make you uncomfortable. So do people w/Down syndrome. The 2 together? Your head wants to explode.

And oh, yeah, there’s that election thing. Aiming to show how GOPish he is, how Right of Right, how not-Amash, Meijer’s afraid to be the guy who let those people w/ Down syndrome do their drag show at his venue.

You’re not fooling anybody with your grotesque paternalism, Peter.

This kind of “protection” has been used for centuries to keep #disabled people out of schools, out of jobs, out of marriages, out of the voting booth. This exclusion is bigotry, period.

No more.

#CripTheVote. Protect America by keeping this #ableist asshole out of Congress.

P.S.-Wherever @DragSyndrome reschedule their performance, everyone should go see them.

Sincere thanks to @SFdirewolf for calling attention to this story.

@Lollardfish, I suspect this may make you as mad as it made me.

@tylernilson, thought you might want to know about it too.