ableism & heterosexism

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mia mingus accepting the creating change award:

“i want to honor those of us who know we can not separate heterosexism* from ableism* and allow disability issues to be seen as secondary issues; those of us push disability into the conversation even when it’s hard and unpopular, again and again; those of us who are not a part of the nonprofit industrial complex* and who do not work for an organization but whose activism and work is no less valuable; and especially, those of us who are living at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and disability and know that multi-issue politics are not just a winning strategy but indeed they are the only way that we will survive. we all need to bring disability into our work and confront ableism as a major system of oppression that works hand in hand with heterosexism to oppress queer people. we can not talk about bodies without talking about disability! it means something to be queer and disabled and we need to talk about that.” —mia

(there may be some typos in this but wanted to transcribe for anyone who needed it in another format. it’s a must read!)

*definitions:
heterosexism: discrimination against queer people, making queerness unnatural
ableism: discrimination against disabled people with the idea that having a disability is bad or unnatural
non-profit industrial complex: system of non-profit organizations that has become professionalized and business-like

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Filed under activism, disability, homophobia/heterosexism, queer issues/culture, sexuality