We Are Diverse

We share something in common… we are all trans but we come in many flavors. We are not all white healthily middle class trans women, there are trans men, black trans people, Latinos trans people, indigenous trans people, Asian trans people, and disabled trans people. We cover the whole spectrum of the rainbow both the visible and invisible spectrum.

Why the LGBTQ+ Community Must Fight for Disability Rights
"As long as trans disabled people like me exist, disability issues are trans issues, and trans issues are disability issues."
Them
By Nora Whelan
May 14, 2018

The past year and a half has been particularly difficult for many queer and trans people, as politicians ostensibly charged with our protection have worked to harm if not altogether erase us — and LGBTQ+ people with disabilities, who have faced attempts to repeal critical healthcare services, policies that make education accessible, funds that help subsidize their often sub-minimum and/or forced part-time wages (if even that), and other life-saving necessities, have received the government’s ire twofold.

To learn more about how we can come together as a community to fight for LGBTQ+ liberation for all of us, we spoke with three queer and trans disability activists about the work they're doing and their hopes for the future.
[…]
“Because of my multiple types of disabilities, I’ve faced a lot of discrimination in receiving healthcare, and it's been worse when people discover that I'm transgender,” he says.

“I’ve almost died because of a nurse who wanted me to prove I was a trans man before she’d order the blood that I needed from doctors to replace the significant amounts of blood I was losing at the time.”

Then there is intersectionality…

“Many of us are multiply marginalized, and we all need to start respecting one another and working together. Allies, too, need to make sure we are included, actually listen to what we say, and not talk over us. I want to bridge the gap between my communities. This administration is attacking all of us, and it's harder to fight alone,” says Evans. “When are we going to stop oppressing ourselves?”

Those of us who are advocates; we need to be an advocate for the whole community not just the healthy white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Those living on the margins of the intersections need our help the most.