Kelly Profile picture
Jul 18 6 tweets 1 min read Read on X
One of my oldest friends ghosted me when I went public with my chronic illness.

They wanted the “old me”. They wanted me to hide it better.

Two days ago they reached out to say they’re now disabled & worried they won’t be able to keep their job.

They asked for my help 🧵
They said they didn’t realize how bad it was.

They lamented the lack of support.

Said they’re hiding it as best as they can but it’s exhausting and wearing them down.

You know what they didn’t say? Sorry.
This is the case all too often for those of us who advocate for disability awareness and chronic illness.

We’re shunned. Ignored. Abandoned.

Treated as a nuisance and told to “try harder”

Our pleas for solidarity go unheard.
The only time people pay attention is when it happens to them, and by that point it’s too late.

We can’t give you your health back. We can’t transport you back in time to take the advice we gave you to maintain your health.

We can’t make it so you won’t deal with discrimination
All we can do now is help you reach a point of acceptance.

Help you dismantle your own internalized ableism and build a new existence in a world that will now turn its back on you just as you turned your back on us.
And we do this with compassion and kindness despite the way we’ve been treated.

We show up for you even when you wouldn’t show up for us.

Please, consider saying sorry. Consider acknowledging the way you treated us.

It would mean a lot. /end

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More from @broadwaybabyto

Jul 19
An 82 year old man named Luis Leon came to the US in 1987.

He sought asylum from political persecution in Chile.

He’s been in the US ever since & was granted a green card.

He lost his wallet (and green card) in June & when he went to replace it he was disappeared by ICE 🧵
What followed for his family is the stuff of nightmares.

They couldn’t find him. Couldn’t talk to him. Couldn’t get him a lawyer.

This was a senior citizen who did absolutely nothing wrong.

Who hasn’t lost their wallet at some point?
On July 9th the family were informed he had died.

They were consumed with grief and still had no information about what happened to him.

Mercifully it turns out that information was a mistake, and Leon was instead being held in Guatemala.
Read 8 tweets
Jul 18
“If you can use the internet you can work!” Is such a privileged ableist take.

It goes to show how little the average person understands chronic illness.

How little thought they give to the unique challenges we face or the multiple barriers to holding down a job 🧵
First things first, it’s true that remote work is an important disability accommodation that can allow some disabled people to remain active in the workforce.

It’s also exceedingly hard to get and doesn’t work for everyone.
Disability is not one size fits all.

Many disabled people can work full time jobs outside the home.

Many can’t work at all.

Many exist somewhere in between.

All options are valid and all should be respected.
Read 12 tweets
Jul 16
When I was 19, I was told pregnancy would likely kill me.

I didn’t want kids. I had never wanted kids. I certainly didn’t want to die.

So I asked for my tubes to be died and was told no.

They told me abortion would be my best option IF I became pregnant. 🧵
Thankfully I live somewhere that gives me full reproductive rights and healthcare.

Thankfully there’s no draconian abortion bans to put my life at risk.

But I was still denied autonomy over my body, just because I’m a woman.
I was told to use birth control. When I had bad reactions to it, I was told I should practice abstinence.

I was having gynaecological surgery anyways for severe endometriosis, there was no increased risk for a tubal ligation.
Read 12 tweets
Jul 16
There’s nothing wrong with healthy eating, but it is not a “patriotic duty”

The moment you start believing that, you’ve ceded ground to eugenics

This is another ploy to get people to be “fine” with kicking people off their healthcare.

To get you to accept death & disease 🧵
The MAHA crowd want to make people believe that disability is a personal failing.

That if you eat right, have a healthy lifestyle and exercise you won’t ever become chronically ill.

They want to blame people for being sick so that they don’t have to provide care.
Disability is not and has never been a moral failing.

It’s a part of life. The human body is frail.

If you live long enough you will more than likely experience disability at some point.

No one is the exception.
Read 10 tweets
Jul 12
A woman in South Carolina has been arrested for miscarrying.

Why? Because she put the tissue in the garbage.

They’re charging her with “desecration of human remains”

This is where abortion bans lead.

To the criminalization of pregnancy & total control of women.
These bans aren’t about preserving life or protecting women, they’re about controlling us.

They strip us of bodily autonomy. Threaten our lives and our freedom. Traumatize, harm and even kill.

Bans also increase maternal & infant mortality.
A woman who’s had a miscarriage is going through a terrible emotional ordeal… the last thing she needs is to be arrested and jailed.

It’s cruel and unusual punishment.

It makes pregnancy unsafe.
Read 8 tweets
Jul 12
A healthcare worker doesn’t have to “force” you to remove your mask to cause harm or infection.

When they say “you don’t have to wear your mask here” or “you seem anxious about Covid”…

They’re sending a clear message to the patient that their mask isn’t respected. 🧵
They’re telling the patient that their care may be compromised should they insist on masking.

They’re telling the patient that if they request staff wear a mask, they will likely end up with a note in their chart about how they’re “difficult”
They’re also endangering the lives of those who are less Covid aware and/or suffer from white coat syndrome.

If you’re masking because you think you should, and a doctor tells you that you don’t “need” to, there’s decent odds of you will believe them.
Read 8 tweets

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