I’m happy to report the string of 4,736 radio ads I’ve heard in the #GASenate runoff has been broken!!

I’m sad to report the ad which did it was a “we can fix your broken kid” ad by #AutismSpeaks.

Give autistic people 1% of their bloated budget & watch the world change. 💯 I’m serious. Give autistic adults 1% of the budget of any big autism group and things would be SO MUCH BETTER for parents, kids, and us.

I’ve repeatedly said that to neurotypical people, but to quote Georgia native André 3000 “Y’all don’t want to hear me, you just wanna dance.”

🧵 THREAD 🧵

Someone wrote that Judge Amy Coney Barrett would bring “heart” to ‘special needs’ if confirmed to the #SupremeCourt. After showing my respect for the person who wrote that, and understanding of where they were coming from, this was my response: “Disabled people don’t need lawmakers or jurors to bring “heart” to ‘special needs’. That’s what has led to patronizing policy which has f%¥ked over the exercise of our equality and marginalized our full participation in society over-and-over-and-over again...

The whole #BobWoodward thing reminds me that our better politicians understand the press will try to ‘get’ them, and that’s a good, healthy thing for our democracy. They respect and welcome that.

—> It’s a BS check.

Bad politicians think the press is there to serve them. *I should say it’s not as much that the press tries to “get” politicians, but that they don’t regard a politician’s messaging priorities when they are reporting stories. That’s an amazing thing, and when I was a press officer it drove me up the wall.

I hated it, but I loved it.

I’m an autistic person with #dyscalculia.

So, while I very much *feel* #SpoonTheory in my being, it all falls apart when trying to use it as a metaphor with others (or as an accommodation strategy for myself). I constantly miscount and lose them.

I’m a #Spoonie without spoons. When speaking, or in meetings, I’m often asked by folks to explain spoon theory. I usually just turn to someone I trust and ask “Could you explain it?”

For myself, I’ve learned to just make myself stop, slow down, or turn down requests when needed — and to be ok with that.

I often think on how research, medicine, and psychiatry approach and ‘treat’ autistic people today in the exact same manner they approached and ‘treated’ homosexuality until 1972.

Then, thanks to #LGBTQ advocates, homosexuality was suddenly ‘cured’ by @APAPsychiatric overnight.

https://twitter.com/Bob_Witeck/status/1301951582905475072

Where are the endless research papers about the genetics and epigenetics of gay people?

Where are the warnings of “risk factors” for lesbians?

Where’s the pleading for “early intervention” for bisexuals?

What about environmental factors?!?!

I just watched a @GeographyNow segment on Sierra Leone & it seems like such an amazing place.

My neighbor for 15 years in DC was the Sierra Leonean embassy & I regularly ate at a Sierra Leonean cafe, but didn’t know much else. It’s now a place I’d desperately love to go.

❤️🇸🇱 Here is the @GeographyNow segment on Sierra Leone.

“You’re so sassy!”

When I stopped at Tern Lake in Alaska, this #BlackBilledMagpie came over to eat the bugs off my car (and seemingly gossip). We chatted for a good five minutes, at least.

[Video Description: A black, white, and blue bird chirps and stands on my rental car.] Spending a good five minutes looking at this magpie in Alaska up close, it struck me how much birds look like dinosaurs (because they are).

It made me think of @DustinGrowick (an amazing and endlessly entertaining science/dinosaur educator...follow him!).

Robert Canali is a Canadian photographer I admire who has encouraged me in my own art. I was honored to sit for this portrait in his ‘Project Screentime’ series.

❤️❤️

More info below.

(First three photos courtesy of artist. Last photo courtesy Philip Bewley, DZine Gallery) In a time of online meetings and socialization, Canali talks online with subjects around the world discussing their lives during COVID-19 and shelter-in-place. He then has them listen to music they’ve selected and sit as still as they can as he takes their portrait...

There are no saviors in democracy. That’s fascism (and there the promise fails).

Perfect politicians don’t create progress, because perfection does not exist.

➡️ WE secure progress w/ political partners, flawed, but who hold common values and are willing to be pushed & shaped. This is a political lesson I learned a long time ago in my 22 years of working in presidential politics.

It’s what President Obama meant when he said “We are the change we seek”. Even he knew he wasn’t perfect, but he sought to be an honest partner - willing to be pushed.

In 2009, a colleague and I huddled in my office to hatch an idea based on a hunch. Today, I just saw an ad for @ONgov’s digital service (led by @hillary Hartley) that touted how it was inspired by the White House programs which were inspired by that hunch.

I may have just cried. That hunch snowballed into a lot of things, including the first innovation lab in the federal government and then innovation labs throughout the federal government. It collided with other ideas to help form the White House Innovation Fellows and the U.S. Digital Service...

Question: For those you can see and are knowledgeable on this matter, can you visually see when an image on Twitter has alt text vs. when not?

For example, this is a screenshot image that shows “+ALT” when I compose alt text. Does that show up when published?

I ask because: A. I’ve googled this but can’t seem to find an answer.

B. I’m hesitant to retweet tweets with images without AltText. So, I’m trying to find a way to see if an image I’d like to retweet has alt text or not.

Beyond impairment, I find the social model of disability helpful when thinking on systemic racism/sexism/transphobia/etc.

Humans are really good at disabling others in multiple ways.

Accomodations are workarounds within disabling systems.

Disabling systems must be replaced. I think on this a lot. I’m not sure if a tweet encapsulates exactly my thoughts on this. Perhaps I’ll write an essay laying that out a bit more.

If we start with the assumption that all people are equal, then any action or system which prevents one’s equality is a disabling act.

I began my career doing presidential advance. The fact that six members of the Trump campaign staff tested positive for #COVID_19 in Tulsa is significant. Here’s a list of people they’ve potentially exposed long before the event itself (its long): * First responders
* Military personnel (mostly Air Force)
* Secret Service agents
* FBI agents
* Federal agency leads (Oklahoma City)
* Medical staff
* TSA agents (multiple airports)
* Flight attendants (multiple airports)
* Airport personnel (multiple airports)

I’m fortunate to have known Frank before he died, having helped organize an official apology on behalf of the U.S. Government for firing him 50yrs earlier. We were also involved in organizing together.

I often think of how he may have been autistic.
🌈

washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-a-… Frank Kameny was gruff, was beloved by countless people but still had difficulty making connections, had a strong sense of justice, was unwavering (ahem, “fixated” in pursuing the end goal.

I just read the self-published anti-trans screed by @jk_rowling. Wow.

When I worked in a newsroom, we’d regularly receive pitched OpEds from notable cranks. They were always devoid of merit, horribly constructed, and always went in the trash. It was pretty much that. I’ve never read the #HarryPotter series, but I trust @jk_rowling is a capable writer. That is not demonstrated here.

It’s nothing but red herrings and the “some of my best friends are X” tropes that those who refuse to examine their own bigotry make. It’s awful.

The pops of #BlackJoy I see in demonstrations built out of pain is everything.

When I worked on a ranch, we did what we called “brush clearing” - removing thorns & stumps to clear space for life to flourish. As allies, that’s our work.

#BlackDisabledLivesMatter
📸: @jtknoxroxs Systemic racism (sexism, ableism, etc.) restricts spaces for people to be joyous, to be themselves. Instead, a person must devote time and energy to interacting with the barriers which attempt to confine them.

Let’s create more room for joy; more room for people to just be.

I know from friends who are pilots that there is an entire community of flight nerds who love searching flight maps. Some Canadian pilot made sure the message of #BlackLivesMatter permeated that space.

If you’re going to nerd, nerd-out for good.

❤️ ✈️

pointmetotheplane.boardingarea.com/black-lives-ma… Things like this (as well as protests around the globe of massive crowds), show that this is a moment the world has been given. Something is happening that hasn’t happened before. We can’t waste this opportunity.

This was the back of the #BlackDisabledLivesMatter sign (designed by @jtknoxroxs this week & spreading around the world) at SF Police HQ yesterday.

I was afraid people would take my reference to #ChocolateRain as a joke. People GOT it. I wanted to honor the voice of @TayZonday. That song has hit me hard this week (check out @TayZonday for a recent arrangement). It’s partly because we treated it as a meme in 2007, yet what was sung is what’s being said today. It’s what #DoTheRightThing said in 1989. It’s what’s always been said, but hasn’t been heard.

White people doing anti-racist work need to be comfortable with people assuming we may be racist ourselves.

Don’t seek validation from black fiends for what you do. It’s exhausting for them to babysit our feelings. Just do the work.

I’m ok with people thinking whatever of me. Someone may read what I just tweeted and think “Here’s another white person trying to show others they’re an ally. What an ass.”

That’s ok.

That’s fine.

Just practice anti-racism and don’t worry about how it reflects on you.

If I have one measure of my autistic advocacy, it’s Knox. He’s seven. Every time I see him I think “I’ve got 11 years.”

Eleven years until he turns 18. What world will he enter then? That’s my focus. It keeps me motivated; pushes me to hustle hard everyday.

Also, this video!
❤️

https://twitter.com/jtknoxroxs/status/1268590053044912130

Video Description: A video showing a young black boy coloring a fist with a brown crayon. Subsequent images show him smiling and holding up his coloring. An additional photo shows three young white children coloring similar drawings.