#mia mingus

[abyssal-debonair]

"We will not trade disabled deaths for abled life. We will not allow disabled people to be disposable or the necessary collateral damage for the status quo. We will not look away from the mass illness and death that surrounds us or from a state machine that is more committed to churning out profit and privileged comfort with eugenic abandonment. "We know the state has failed us. We are currently witnessing the pandemic state-sanctioned violence of murder, eugenics, abuse and bone-chilling neglect in the face of mass suffering, illness and death. We are the richest nation in the world and we continue to choose greed and comfort over people and life. The state is driving the knife of suffering deeper into the gut of those already collapsed on the ground. The cruelty is sweeping and unapologetic."

This was published in January 2022, but Mia Mingus's words still ring true over a year and a half later now that people are pretending COVID is no longer a threat. Especially

"We know we need systemic change so that our peoples can literally survive this pandemic, but we also know that the kind of changes we need are most likely not coming. It is in the interest of those in power to keep people uncared for, sick and dependent on dwindling crumbs. This is one reason why ableism and poverty are so effective and why they are often inseparable. There are many things we cannot control or change right now, even as we desperately wish we could. As we fight for systemic changes, we can also try to change what is happening inside of our communities. We can learn from our mistakes and try to, at the very least, not make things worse than they already are."

[titsoutfornature]

Not getting vaccinated is not “my body, my choice,” it is more like drunk driving or exposing someone to secondhand smoke.

Abled entitlement ensures your risk assessment will always be, “if I get sick, I will be able to recover OK. My family will be OK. My children will be OK.” Never, “Will they be OK? Will their children be OK? Will their family be OK? Will everyone they might also interact with be OK?” Never, “Could this harm their neighborhood? Their state? Their country? Their continent?” Shielded by your abled privileged bravado of “it won’t happen to me.” Never, “Who might I be exposing? I might be OK, but someone else may not.”

[sirghostheart]

Ableism must be included in our analysis of oppression and in our conversations about violence, responses to violence and ending violence.  Ableism cuts across all of our movements because ableism dictates how bodies should function against a mythical norm—an able-bodied standard of white supremacy, heterosexism, sexism, economic exploitation, moral/religious beliefs, age and ability.  Ableism set the stage for queer and trans people to be institutionalized as mentally disabled; for communities of color to be understood as less capable, smart and intelligent, therefore “naturally” fit for slave labor; for women’s bodies to be used to produce children, when, where and how men needed them; for people with disabilities to be seen as “disposable” in a capitalist and exploitative culture because we are not seen as “productive;” for immigrants to be thought of as a “disease” that we must “cure” because it is “weakening” our country; for violence, cycles of poverty, lack of resources and war to be used as systematic tools to construct disability in communities and entire countries.

[death-headed]

"We need to move away from “holding people accountable” and instead work to support people to proactively take accountability for themselves. It is not another person’s job to hold you accountable—that is your job. People can support you to be accountable, but no one but you can do the hard work of taking accountability for yourself."

"Accountability is generative, not punitive. If you want punishment, you should be upfront and transparent about that. Do not ask for accountability, when what you really want is punishment or revenge. Just as it takes work to be accountable, it also takes work to receive someone’s accountability."

[the-sound-of-her-wings]

"We all run from the ugly. And the farther we run from it, the more we stigmatize it and the more power we give beauty. Our communities are obsessed with being beautiful and gorgeous and hot. What would it mean if we were ugly? What would it mean if we didn’t run from our own ugliness or each other’s? How do we take the sting out of “ugly?” What would it mean to acknowledge our ugliness for all it has given us, how it has shaped our brilliance and taught us about how we never want to make anyone else feel? What would it take for us to be able to risk being ugly, in whatever that means for us. What would happen if we stopped apologizing for our ugly, stopped being ashamed of it? What if we let go of being beautiful, stopped chasing “pretty,” stopped sucking in and shrinking and spending enormous amounts of money and time on things that don’t make us magnificent?

Where is the Ugly in you? What is it trying to teach you?"

- Mia Mingus, "Moving Toward the Ugly: A Politic Beyond Desirability" as quoted in Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da'Shaun L. Harrison

[dotsunflowers]

[Image ID: Two screenshots of text. The first reads, “We must leave evidence. Evidence that we were here, that we existed, that we survived and loved and ached. Evidence of the wholeness we never felt and the immense sense of fullness we gave to each other. Evidence of who we were, who we thought we were, who we never should have been. Evidence for each other that there are other ways to live—past survival; past isolation.”

The text in the second image reads, “ ‘I exist.] In thousands of agonies — I exist. I’m tormented on the rack — but I exist! Though I sit alone in a pillar — I exist! I see the sun, and if I don’t see the sun, I know it’s there. And there’s a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there.” /end ID.]

Leaving Evidence, Mia Mingus via wordpress /  Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.

[verolynne]

It is lovely to be here with you all. Thank you to the symposium organizers who have asked me to be here and for your hard work putting this gathering on. And thank you to ALL the folks who have made it possible for us to be here, including the people who built this building and who clean it and care for it everyday; including the people who are being violently exploited in this country and around the globe for their resources and labor so that we can exist in this air conditioned hotel with access to clean water and food, able to sit in relative safety from military attacks or the police barging in. And including and honoring native and first nations communities upon whose land we are currently on and whose colonization and genocide have also allowed us to be here.

[thedogofchristmaspast]

oughrrrr SO excited for the roger route.........gnawing at my enclosure

a personal prediction i have is that roger and peter's late former manager was not only connected with the mafia but Was the mafia boss and was mingus's dad...i don't know if anyone else has already said this but i am Putting it out there. in case it happens.

[deer-in-headlights-stare]

i read this essay several weeks ago for a class but this part of it specifically has stuck in my brain ever since. by obsessing on beauty we ostracise uglyness not just physically but groups n persons we deem ugly!! by focusing so hard on your own beauty you become tunnel-visioned towards others who dont fit the model of beauty youve made to fit yourself in! do you get it!!

[cicadascientists]

we've made an interest check/sign up sheet!

please fill out this form if you're interested in joining the reading group and/or have any suggestions for papers/articles for us to read!

HEAR YE HEAR YE 📣 

CICADAS is starting a disability studies reading group, to meet every two weeks, starting in january 2025!

interested? reblog this post registering your interest!

we'll be starting with henner and robinson's (2023) unsettling languages, unruly bodyminds: a crip linguistics manifesto (DOI: 10.48516/jcscd_2023vol1iss1.4)

looking forward to seeing you there!!

[trans-axolotl]

this is a shortened works cited from my thesis, pulling out the sources about American intersex history and activism from the past 30 years. i have pdfs for most of the sources there, if there's something that isn't linked send me a message and i can try to find it!

just thought i'd try to put a lot of intersex history sources in one place.

Works Cited: 

Amato, Viola. “The Intersex Movement of the 1990s: Speaking Out Against Medical and Narrative Violence.” In Intersex Narratives: Shifts in the Representation of Intersex Lives in North American Literature and Popular Culture, 55–102. Transcript Verlag, 2016. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1xxrsz.6.

Bauer, Markus, Daniela Truffer and Daniela Crocetti. “Intersex Human Rights.” The International Journal of Human Rights. 24, no.6. (2020):724-749.https://doi.org/10.1080/13642987.2019.1671354 

Brown, Lydia X.Z., Erickson, Loree, da Silva Gorman, Rachel, Lewis, Talila A., McLeod, Lateef, and Mingus, Mia.  “Radical Disability Politics.” In Routledge Handbook of Radical Politics, edited by A.J. Withers and Liat Ben-Moshe, 178-193. Routledge, 2019. 

Cameron, David. “Hermaphrodites With Attitude.” Newsletter. 1994. https://isna.org/library/hwa/ 

Carpenter, Morgan. “Fixing bodies and shaping narratives: Epistemic injustice and the responses of medicine and bioethics to intersex human rights demands.” Clinical Ethics. 2024;19, no. 1. (2024) :3-17. doi:10.1177/14777509231180412

Chase, Cheryl. “Hermaphrodites with Attitude: Mapping the Emergence of Intersex Political Activism.” Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 4, no.2, (1998): 189-211. 

---, Hermaphrodites Speak! 1997; Rohnert Park: Intersex Society of North America. Video tape. 

Cohen, Julie, dir. Every Body. 2023; United States: Focus Features, DVD.

Denny, Dallas.  "Chrysalis Quarterly, Vol. 2 No. 5 (Fall, 1997 / Winter, 1998)."  Periodical.  1998.  Digital Transgender Archive,  https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/7s75dc39s  (accessed April 08, 2024).

Davis, Georgiann. “Introduction: Normalizing Intersex: The Transformative Power of Stories.”  in Voices: Personal Stories from the Pages of Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics: Normalizing Intersex, edited by James DuBois and Ana Iltis. 1-4. John Hopkins University Press, 2016. 

Dreger, Alice. “Rejecting the Tranquilizing Drug of Gradualism in Intersex Care.” Alice Dreger (blog). November 2015. Accessed April 9, 2024. https://alicedreger.com/dsd_human_rights/ 

Dreger, Alice and April Herndon. “Progress and Politics in the Intersex Rights Movement: Feminist Theory in Action.” Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 15, no. 2. (2009): 199-224.

Fausto-Sterling, Ane. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books. 2000. 

“A Framework for Intersex Justice.” Intersex Justice Project. 2021. Accessed April 8, 2024. https://www.intersexjusticeproject.org/intersex-justice-framework.html 

"FTM Newsletter #37."  Periodical.  1997.  Digital Transgender Archive,  https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/kd17cs89j  (accessed April 08, 2024).

Hegarty, Peter, Marta Prandelli, Trove Lundberg, Lih-Mei Liao, Sarah Creighton, and Katrina Roen.”Drawing the Line Between Essential and Nonessential Interventions on Intersex Characteristics With European Health Care Professionals.” Review of General Psychology. 25, no 1. (2020): 101-114. 

Hermaphrodites With Attitude.  "Hey AAP! Get Your Scalpels Off Our Bodies! Flyer."  Ephemera.  1990.  Digital Transgender Archive,  https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/qj72p712h  (accessed April 08, 2024). 

“Hermaphrodites With Attitude,” Intersex Society of North America. 2006. Accessed April 8, 2024. https://isna.org/library/hwa/ 

“How To: Organize an #EndIntersexSurgery Protest in your hometown--a toolkit created by Intersex Justice Project (IJP.” Intersex Justice Project. 2019. Accessed April 8, 2024. https://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20191111232744/https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EgYy2jfSO04HF_FGv-8RXYEgWW422L-RB7oxMOaIiBc/edit 

Hughes, Ieuan, Christopher Houk, Syed Faisal Ahmed, Peter Lee, and LWPES1/ESPE2 Consensus Group. “Consensus Statement on Management of intersex disorders.” Disease in Childhood. 91, no.7. (2006): 554-563. doi: 10.1136/adc.2006.098319

“I Want to Be Like Nature Made Me: Medically Unnecessary Surgeries on Intersex Children in the US.” Human Rights Watch. InterACT. July 2017, accessed April 8, 2024. https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/lgbtintersex0717_web_0.pdf 

“InterACT Statement on Intersex Terminology.” InterACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth. 2015. Accessed April 8, 2024. https://interactadvocates.org/interact-statement-on-intersex-terminology/#:~:text=interACT's%20use%20of%20terminology%20and,of%20the%20term%20%E2%80%9Cintersex%E2%80%9D. 

Lindhal, Hans. “Is PCOS an Intersex Condition? Here’s 5 Reasons Why Some Say Yes.” HansLindhal.Com (Blog). February 2023, Accessed April 7, 2024. https://hanslindahl.com/blog/is-pcos-an-intersex-condition 

---., “9 Young People on How They Found Out They Are Intersex.” Teen Vogue. October 2019. Accessed April 10, 2024. https://www.teenvogue.com/gallery/young-people-on-how-they-found-out-they-are-intersex 

“M.C v. Aaronson.” Southern Poverty Law Center. 2017. Accessed April 8, 2024. https://www.splcenter.org/seeking-justice/case-docket/mc-v-aaronson

Merrick, Ten. “From ‘Intersex’ to ‘DSD’: A Case of Epistemic Injustice.” Synthese 196, no. 11 (2019): 4429–47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45220035.

Orr, Celeste. Cripping Intersex. University of British Columbia Press, 2022. 

Pagonis, Pidgeon. “#EndIntersexSurgery Protest At Lurie Children’s Hospital Recap + 5 Ways To Get Involved.” Intersex Justice Project. 2018. Accessed April 8, 2024. https://www.intersexjusticeproject.org/blog/endintersexsurgery-protest-at-lurie-childrens-hospital-recap 

Pagonis, Pidgeon and Sean Saifa Wall. “Open Letter to AIS-DSD Support Group.” EndIntersexSurgery. Intersex Justice Project. February 2018. Accessed April 8, 2024.  http://www.endintersexsurgery.org/ 

Redick, Alison. “What Happened at Hopkins: The Creation of the Intersex Management Protocols.  Cardozo Journal of  Law & Gender. 12 (2005): 289-296 

Reid, Graeme, and Minky Worden. “Caster Semenya Won Her Case, But Not the Right to Compete.” Human Rights Watch. July 2023. Accessed April 10, 2024. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/18/caster-semenya-won-her-case-not-right-compete  

Reis, Elizabeth. Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex. John Hopkins Press, 2021.

---, “Did Bioethics Matter? A HIstory of Autonomy, Consent, and Intersex Genital Surgery. Medical Law review. 27, no.4, (2019):658-674. https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwz007 

Rios-Espinosa, Carlos, Koomah, Syrus Marcus Ware, and Sean Saifa Wall. “Liberating All Bodies: Disability Justice & Intersex Justice In Conversation.” Webinar at the Crip Camp Impact Team and Human Rights Watch Film Festival, United States, October 2020.  

Rubin, David, Michelle Wolff and Amanda Lock Swarr. “Creating Intersex Justice: Interview with Sean Saifa Wall and Pidgeon Pagonis of the Intersex Justice Project.”  Transgender Studies Quarterly. 9, no. 2. (2022): 187-195. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-9612823 

Sharman, Zena. “Intersex Justice and the Care We Deserve: ‘I Want People to Feel at Home in Their Bodies Again.’” Ms. Magazine. 2022. Accessed April 8, 2024. https://msmagazine.com/2022/02/03/intersex-justice-the-care-we-dream-of-queer-trans-healthcare/  

Sharpe, Sam. “No one-size-fits all: Myths and Misconceptions about PCOS.” InterACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth. Advocates for Informed Choice. October 2022. Accessed on April 7, 2024. https://interactadvocates.org/no-one-size-fits-all-myths-and-misconceptions-about-pcos/ 

Spurgas, Alyson. “(Un)Queering Identity: The Biosocial Production of Intersex/DSD.” in Critical Intersex edited by Morgan Holmes. 97-122. Ashgate Publishing, 2009. 

Tamar-Matis, Anne. “ Advocates for Informed Choice, Newsletter Fall 2007.” Newsletter. 2007. AIC Legal .https://aiclegal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/fall-07-newsletter-final.pdf

---. “Advocates for Informed Choice: Newsletter Spring 2008.” Newsletter. 2008. AIC Legal.https://aiclegal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/spring-08-final.pdf

---. “Advocates for Informed Choice: Newsletter Summer 2009.” Newsletter. 2009. AIC Legal.https://aiclegal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/aic-2009-summer-newsletter-pdf.pdf

---. “Advocates for Informed Choice: Spring 2010 Newsletter.” Newsletter. 2010. AIC Legal.https://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=f8291560ebb2dafc25097480f&id=5803ec8c71

---., “June 2011: Promoting the Civil Rights of Children Born With Variations of Sex Anatomy.” Newsletter. 2011. AIC Legal. https://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=f8291560ebb2dafc25097480f&id=cec68ddac 

---.. “June 2012: Promoting the Civil Rights of Children Born With Variations of Sex Anatomy.” Newsletter. 2012. AIC Legal. https://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=f8291560ebb2dafc25097480f&id=b4d4dd90cf

---. “ 2012 Annual Report.” Newsletter. 2012. Advocates for Informed Choice. https://interactadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/AIC-2012-Annual-Report.pdf 

---. “2013 Annual Report. “ Newsletter. 2012. Advocates for Informed Choice. https://interactadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2013-annual-report-FIN1.pdf  

“US: Anti-Trans Bills Also Harm Intersex Children.” Human Rights Watch. October 22. Accessed April 10, 2024. https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/10/26/us-anti-trans-bills-also-harm-intersex-children 

Vecchietti, Valentino. “A Journey to the Intersex-Inclusive Pride Flag.” Global Inclusive Pride Flag. Intersex Equality Rights. 2021. Accessed April 7, 2024. https://www.globalinclusiveprideflag.com/ 

Wilchins, Riki Anne.  "In Your Face No. 5 (Spring 1998)."  Newsletter.  1998.  Digital Transgender Archive,  https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/files/vq27zn45k  (accessed April 08, 2024).

Withers, AJ. Disability Politics and Theory. Fernwood Publishing, 2012. 

Woo, Elaine. “David Reimer, 38; After Botched Surgery, He was Raised as a Girl in Gender Experiment.: Los Angeles Times. May 2004. Accessed April 8, 2024. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-may-13-me-reimer13-story.html 

[liminalweirdo]

'Brilliant at survival' — Long Covid afflicts trans and bi patients at highest rates.

Less than 2% of U.S. adults are trans or nonbinary, yet nearly 24% of all transgender adults report that they have experienced Long Covid. Bisexual adults report Long Covid cases at the same percentage rate (24%). That makes trans adults and bisexual adults, along with disabled adults, the demographic groups that are experiencing Long Covid in the highest percentages in the country.

So what can we do to help our trans community?

Resources:

• ‘Brilliant at survival’ — Long Covid afflicts trans and bi patients at highest rates | ClearHealthCosts.com

• Long COVID is More Common in Bisexual & Trans People. The Reasons Why Are Complicated | Miles Griffis for them.com

• Biological Sex Differences: Key to Understanding Long COVID? | Medscape

• Long COVID more common in people with HIV | aidsmap

• COVID-19 Is Still a Major Health Concern. Why Are Some HIV Organizations Acting Like It Isn’t? | Emmett Patterson, TheBody.com

• HIV may increase the risk of Long Covid. Why aren’t major advocacy groups addressing it? | Miles Griffis for The Sick Times

• As Queer Spaces Return to “Normal,” Disabled LGBTQ+ People Are Being Left Behind | Miles Griffis for them.com

• Still On the Margins: Long COVID Patients of Color | Angela Meriquez Vázquez, MSW for Disability Visibility Project

• Keep Masks In Healthcare – Toolkit | COVID Advocacy Initiative & COVID Safe Campus

DATA SOURCES + RESOURCES FROM THE WEBINAR

Slides from JD Davids’ presentation

Data source from JD’s presentation: Household Pulse Survey. This doc has a link to the data sources and tips on how to view/sort it.

Webinar resource list

You Are Not Entitled To Our Deaths – COVID, Abled Supremacy & Interdependence | Mia Mingus

Art is at the Heart of Disability Justice – Interview with Abdul-Aliy Muhammad and Pato Hebert

Pod mapping info & examples from creator Mia Mingus’ SOIL Transformative Justice Project

Pod mapping resource focused on disability & autism from Autism Society of Minnesota

[hellyeahscarleteen]

"Research backs up what many LGBTQIA+ people already know through our lived experiences: when we seek out health care, we face a higher likelihood of being discriminated against or outright harmed by our care providers, if we can access health care at all. Many LGBTQIA+ people lack access to dignified, respectful, knowledgeable care because of systemic barriers like poverty, racism⁠, and ableism⁠. Accessing the care we need can feel scary, exhausting, frustrating, and like a lot of work; sometimes, it feels downright impossible! When we do access health care, we often feel like we have to hide parts of ourselves, perform the role of the “good” patient, or make compromises to get what we need. In the process, we may experience harm or violence from the people whose job it is to take care of us.

When we have experiences like this, it can be easy to feel like it’s our fault. A key message I want to convey is that you aren’t the problem, the health system is. It’s built on a foundation of racism, settler colonialism, ableism, sexism⁠, homophobia⁠, transphobia⁠, and other forms of systemic oppression. This shows up everywhere from what people learn in medical school (and who even has access to medical school) to the design of our hospitals to the whole idea of what a “healthy” person looks like. (If you want to learn more about this, you can check out Mia Mingus’ blog post on the medical industrial complex.)"

Dreaming a More Equitable Tomorrow: An interview with author Zena Sharman

[bfpnola]

i was collecting some transformative justice resources for one of our volunteers in our discord server so i figured i'd share some here too:

for more, check out the #clarification-center channel of our server! every day, links to novels, videos, articles, and more are dropped. and this is also the same channel folks asks their questions! even if it seems silly or you feel behind in your activist journey, we trust that every question comes from an authentic place of curiosity!

-- reaux (she/they)

[lyle-and-erik-menendez]

We really need to stop putting people on pedestals. It is harmful and dehumanizes all involved. Putting someone on a pedestal is not caring for them. It is not love. You can love, admire, adore, learn from, or follow the leadership of someone without putting them on a pedestal. Putting people on pedestals is part of the binary of how we categorize people into “good” and “bad”. They are two sides of the same coin and they contribute to our collective inability to understand, identify and respond to harm. We demonize people or we put them on pedestals. As we work to be free of a culture of punishment/revenge, we also have to confront the other side. We have to acknowledge celebrity culture and how it stretches well beyond formal celebrities and into our movements, organizations, groups, relationships -- just as punishment does. A punitive culture teaches us we have to be “good” or “bad”. It erases away our humanity: our human complexities and contradictions; our human capacity for growth, change and transformation, our human capacity for both harm and love.

Mia Mingus