#so i don’t care much to get technical with it

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved on our archive

By Kelly Betts

People can’t see my disability from the outside. I worry that in this current political climate and with the new law, it may not end at the comments and harassment I already face.

On Thursday, officials in Nassau County, New York, where I live, signed a mask ban into law, one of the first of its kind in the country. And while to most healthy adults it doesn’t mean much, to those with serious health conditions, like me, it makes getting out into the world a lot harder.

The ban was touted by lawmakers as a public safety measure after reported antisemitic incidents and protests at various New York universities, many involving people wearing masks. Those who violate the new law face a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. And while there are exemptions for people with religious and medical reasons, it’s not dealing with the law that I’m afraid of. It’s dealing with the “citizen cops” of the world who will be using their discretion to enforce it.

I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in February 2023. It’s a fast-growing type of blood cancer. I underwent more than five rounds of chemotherapy, and the following July, thanks to an amazingly generous donor, I had a stem cell transplant, something I knew nothing about until I got sick. I was given some of the most powerful chemotherapies to kill my old immune system and any remaining cancer cells. Then I was given my donor’s stem cells to help build a brand-new immune system.

There are a lot of risks that come along with the transplant, especially in the early stages as the stem cells are engrafting and you have no immune system. The first 100 days are the riskiest, and you must watch everything from what you eat to how it’s prepared, and most of all the people around you. Your body is starting from scratch, so you have almost no immunities. Any vaccinations you’ve had over your lifetime have been wiped out. For the last year since my transplant, my immune system has slowly been getting stronger. But building a new immune system takes years, and I have a long way to go. So, wearing my face mask whenever I go out is essential.

That brings me back to the new law. I wear a medic alert bracelet and would hope that showing it to the police, should it ever become an issue, would be enough. But that’s not guaranteed, because anyone can just order one. Would I be forced to show up in court to prove my medical condition to a judge? And what cost and time could that take, all to protect my health? And what about my family or people who act as caregivers, who don’t technically have medical conditions of their own, but still wear masks to protect me? Would there be an exemption for them?

Most of all, I worry about those who have strong feelings against masks. As we know, many people read headlines and not always the full story. And just reading most of the headlines, all someone will know is that there’s a mask ban in Nassau County. Even at the height of my illness, with no hair and really looking like I had cancer, I still got comments like “Covid is over” or “that’s not protecting you.” And while the few comments hurt, especially while I was battling for my life, I could shake them off. I had a bigger fight ahead of me.

Now, healthier with hair again and 43 years old, the comments continue. But I worry that in this current political climate and with the new law, it may not end at that. People can’t see my disability from the outside. It’s been hard to get back out in the world, as many can relate to after going through a global pandemic. Even being as careful as I am and just starting to let my guard down a little in outdoor settings, I caught Covid. And it took my body and immune system down hard. Luckily, I’m recovering and back to wearing my mask diligently, even outdoors.

I want to be able to return to my normal life. And go out with friends, see a Broadway show, and one day get back to my office in the city. But now with New York City considering passing its own mask ban, I don’t know when I would feel safe enough to do that. Is this law really protecting the masses?

[midwestemoboyfriend]

If a woman publicly states she would like to have sex with other women is that woman straight 🤔

Did you want me to say OSA like some kind of nerd

[purplecatghostposts]

(Song is ‘I Bet On Losing Dogs By Mitski)

Having Amélie and Félix feelings tonight…

[sirmanmister]

Frostbite

A little gory/exaggerated but I actually like this a lot :D

I like the idea of the freeze being REALLY rough on the sole survivor, and there’s physical trauma involved that they have to deal with past the mental trauma of waking up 200 years in the future.

Damien gets pretty bad barotrauma from being frozen for 150 years, wakes up to see Shaun get taken, then freezes again pretty much immediately afterwards. It’s not like he could fully thaw in those 2 minutes it took Kellogg to open Nora’s door. So now Damien is deaf in his left ear, and he has trouble keeping his hands warm :)

Closeup under the cut

[pepsicoughdrops]

i like to think the foundation cuts corners with morgan’s zoology degree so he gets stuck with things that Are technically animals but not really in his specialty.

i think he knows more about mammalogy and ornithology than he does entomology and marine biology but since bugs and sea creatures are animals and zoology is the study of all animals they give him anything in containment that are and or could technically be considered an animal.

i also think he tried (<-keyword Tried) to protest this to whatever higher up decided this but he was a nervous 20 year old who had just been given a secure government job so he shut up about it immediately after basically being told to suck it up 😭

(click for better quality) (more stuff in tags :3)

[grmpgm]

ok executive dysfunction is kind of ruining my life actually

[floralstorms]

tehe I have. An au. For The Characters

[romantically-yours]

I just wanna go on dates with her

[fallenfawnn]

..

[iknowwhereyousleepatnight]

woke up and was like haha what if i changed my major (again) lol i think it could be soooooo cool if i said fuck it right now and became an art major because idgaf about anything anymore hahaha. but that is the devil speaking.

[padfootastic]

the worst thing is when like. someone on the internet hasn’t done anything wrong, is a perfectly pleasant person, but their vibes are utterly rancid to u. can’t escape them bc theyre on ur feed 84372 times a day and u feel very very weird blocking someone who’s literally not even looked in ur direction lmao

[goldensunset]

wooo our in-class performance type of project went well yayyyy

[ryderdire]

Just cried over Math for the first time in like 6 years so that’s where I’m at

[dykesynthezoid]

Obviously the majority of trans men sound totally normal in how they discuss cis women perpetuating transphobia and being transphobic to them and how that affects how they relate to cis women and all of that is really important for us to be discussing as a community etc

But then there’s like. A minority that will straight up say things like “I don’t give a shit about cis women dying from lack of access to safe abortion since we trans men have it worse anyway” and it’s like hey uh what the fuck. What the fuck

[danielnelsen]

having a LOT of fun recreating my warden and hawke using the ttrpg system

[fingertipsmp3]

The amount of people who seem to enjoy spending time with a lot of people for a long period of time baffles the shit out of me man