I’m just curious about this. As someone with a chronic illness, I pretty much never hear anyone talk about things related to the sorts of difficulties and discrimination I and others might face within society. I’m not aware of companies or governments doing anything special to bring awareness on the same scale of say, pride month for instance. In fact certain aspects of accessibility were only normalized during the pandemic when healthy people needed them and now they’re being gradually rescinded now that they don’t. It’s annoying for those who’ve come to prefer those accommodations. It’s cruel for those who rely on them.
And just to be clear, I’m not suggesting this is an either or sort of thing. I’m just wondering why it’s not a that and this sort of thing. It’s possible I’m not considering the whole picture here, and I don’t mean for this to be controversial.
I mean, you’re basically describing the point of intersectional activism.
Time for a wiki-kick. I don’t know much about it. I’ve literally been living outside society for over a decade.
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I think the ADA is a positive step, but that was over three decades ago now. The silence in terms of further steps since then is significant.
The ADA is so much more than wheelchair accessibility too, people with disabilities have much more potent federal laws on their side than the LGBTQ community does
IIRC, the LGBTQ rights gains of the 2010s were accompanied by the message that it’s not a choice.
Too many people still believe that health and ability are markers of virtue. These people believe that a sick or disabled person must be undersleeping, forgetting their vitamins, being lazy, skipping church, eating junk food, or even thinking negative thoughts. It’s a big lie people tell themselves to feel safe. “I do everything right, so nothing bad can happen to me.”
It won’t get any better until everyone realizes that it can happen to anyone.
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It’s not stupidity, it’s the Just World Hypothesis. A classic example is that thing people do when when driving by a car accident. Many people will look at the wreck and say, “They must have been texting.” Or, “They must have been speeding.” People make up fanfiction to reinforce their feelings of safety. The same thing happens with health and ability.
Wow, you’re a dick
People don’t take pride in those things like they do being gay, bi or trans.
Even in that regard, people who have cancer are often portrayed as fighters, survivors and what not. We don’t frame people who deal with chronic issues day in and day out for the rest of their lives that way though, or at least not to the same extent. We don’t treat it as if they have something to teach healthy people about resilience.
At most we have overly happy ads for medicines which constantly mischaracterize what it’s like to live with certain conditions and which give healthy people the perspective that help is just a drug away. I’m not saying those can’t help, but the ads give the impression that if you’re not living a full life, that’s on you because we’re surrounded by miracle cures.
Some mental illnesses are “cool” or “accepted” now. They are socially acceptable to talk about and having one can even give you clout. Depression and ADHD are in this category.
The rest of the disabilities are still too taboo to talk about. You are better off just keeping it to yourself. Bipolar, schizo-affective, and borderline personality disorder are in this category.
Today, people will tell you with a straight face that they are a victim because they have one of the popular illnesses. It is “in” to be a victim now but, ironically, it’s only socially acceptable to be a victim of some illnesses. If you have e.g. bipolar disorder it’s so stigmatized that you will face repercussions for announcing it yet people still have the audacity to tell you they are a victim.
I don’t think it is about taking pride in being ill, pride was just an example. Its likely more about visibility and having rights and accommodations.
Although, they should be proud- not proud to be ill, but proud of their ability. Sick and in pain people have to traverse a world most people could never imagine.
I’m a proud depressive with adhd, don’t ask me anything please leave me alone
No point in riding bikes, then?
Corpos can’t monetize it as easily as they can with lgbqt
Accommodating handicapped people with things like preferential parking, access ramps, etc, occurred in the 1970s and 80s everywhere in the United States, and many other countries have followed suit since then.
Reading down this thread so far, I have yet to see anyone acknowledge the fact that there is infrastructure in place for people with disabling physical conditions. Many physical conditions are still unaddressed, but it’s cherry-picking to willfully ignore something that is in front of our eyes every time we go to a store or cinema, restaurant chain or mall, and say that nothing has been done.
I also believe this is the same type of attitude that leads to thoroughly incomplete and flawed conclusions like “both parties are the same”.
As a sidenote that dovetails nicely, it was Democrats who pushed for handicapped accessibility across the country, while republicans were - of course - indifferent. Yet they went along with it. Nowadays, they would probably sabotage this type of campaign, with a monumental barrage of toxic propaganda that twists, bends and perverts both reality and basic human decency.
I’m not aware of people saying nothing has been done, but not every health limitation reduces down to ramps and parking spots as a solution. And if people thinks that’s enough, then it’s just because they haven’t had to live with the conditions which make navigating society incredibly difficult, if not impossible.
Fellow cripple, chronic pain sufferer who struggles to function in society. It sucks. We get no help. Everybody around us gets help but us
That sounds pretty bitter, and a little misguided.
I’m sure it sucks, but I bet I could find plenty of marginalized groups that get less support per capita.
The ADA has changed construction across the US for decades. Any substantial renovation involves bringing preexisting structures up to code. That is not nothing. I’m sure it’s hundreds of billions of dollars nationally in accommodations.
The ADA has made you a protected class for decades longer than LGBTQ folks.
It might be slower than you want, and I’m sure it’s still not enough, but it is far more than you’re suggesting. And probably receives more money than any other marginalized group in terms of dollars spent on accommodations.
What’s your experience with chronic illness?
That it’s better to not have one than to have one.
Which chronic illness are we talking about? There’s a lot and have wildly different societal needs.
You speak the truth. And Jack O’Neill is awesome (Two l’s!).
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If it’s worth anything, all the visibilization, representation and positive portrayal of disability and chronic illness I’ve ever seen (and it has steadily grown in the past 10 years in my experience) has come through LGBT+ or LGBT+friendly spaces or hand in hand with them (once again, in my experience). I don’t known how mainstream it is though, since my browsing habits are not that mainstream
I’ve honestly never really heard anyone complaining about it. You need to make a fuss.
You also need to ask us to implement a solution. “Make this wheelchair accessible” is actionable, but I literally have no idea what OP (or the other people who are saying they agree) want
That’s where it gets tough. I know what might be helpful to me, but that may not have any bearing on somebody else’s condition. If there’s not a general willingness to want to improve society more broadly then it can just come across as noise in terms of the extent of what’s called for as compared to what the rest of society is willing to accommodate. And even if my situation is incredibly inconvenient to me, how do I weigh it against the needs of another person whose concerns are potentially greater than my own?
This can be considered a micro-fuss for starters.
I dont think I understand what is the end goal of this question?
Understanding is the only goal.
Protections and accommodations for those groups are codified into law much more firmly and with longer tenure as a part of decent society.
By contrast, we’re unfortunately not far removed from the time when the word “gay”, for example, was commonly used as a pejorative for just about everything. LGBTQIA+ people are also very often attacked and killed for their status as such in the modern world.
So that gap in concrete societal norms and established, ubiquitous law are what demand a more active PRIDE movement right now to help people feel seen and spread awareness to counteract hate and ignorance (which hopefully leads to similar enforced protections for these communities).
All are valid though and need more support.
There is actually a quite hardcore history of advocacy that cropped up in the civil rights era where folk with disabilities performed some really heroic protest. The tale of Ed Roberts and the “Rolling Quads” is pretty legendary stuff.
The wins established a mostly unchallenged veiw at a legal level that differently abled people deserve to have their participation in society facilliatied. It was a major win…
But with success comes stagnation. Part of why the LGBTQIA+ is so visible is the movement is still marching and there is a secondary purpose to the movement. The visibility of actually running up a flag in those communities is a way to make something potentially invisible visible. To give a sense of solidarity. A lot of subjugation techniques of the past were to make people feel like they couldn’t possibly make strides for equality because their numbers were too small. Prides are the antithesis to that form of subjugation and for lost souls cast out from their families to find a non-hostile culture. Prides are run by legacy volunteers and are huge in participation so people who want to gain political points for future votes or as an audience gathering together anyway to advertize to look at tipping their hat to the movement as personally adventageous. They don’t nessisarily do it out of generosity and respect. While it’s possible they do actually have aligned principles of civil rights it is basic backscratching as the LGBTQIA have something they want. Votes or dollars.
As far as I am aware Disability civil rights advocacy has moved mostly into the pocketsquare and tie political sphere rather than the rough and tumble social advocacy battles where it began and as a result the short memory of society has forgotten the impact and demands of those voices in the villiage square ring of cultural advocacy. Since fewer people are counted on to be tuned into C-SPAN then can be counted at to go paint some rainbows on their faces and participate in a mardi gras style carnival event it doesn’t get the same level of attention.
In short - effective cultural advocacy along the lines of the LGBTQIA is driven by communities banding together and going out and being visible in force and making some kind of public fuss. All the better if it’s an over the top fun day… Or if you set fire to things and riot that basically gets people talking and asking questions too. Basically whatever works to be the loudest squeeky wheel. Otherwise non-minority folk who don’t have to think about your needs will forget to ask you what you need or straight up forget you exist.
Advocating for glbtq rights does not endanger the main power structure. Advocating for people suffering from chronic illness would require fundamental changes to how healthcare is distributed, and thus directly affect the bottom line of some very powerful interests.
There’s a lot of LGBT people with the same demand - “Let us be this gender”. What demand are chronic illness people making?
Let us use the abilities we have without demanding that we do what we can’t. Let us have as much access to society as if possible. Don’t shut us out and ignore our existence.
To add, as most responses here seem correct but I haven’t seen this said.
In recent mentors memory there has not been a moral judgement attached to disabilities. There’s a lack of societal hate to overcome, everyone agrees disabilities suck and aren’t your fault. So there’s no rallies, no allies.
