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No Body is Disposable! Fat and Disability Communities Join Powers to Close the Camps

by Dawn Haney and Max Airborne

In this poignant and timely piece, Dawn Haney and Max Airborne of Fat Rose describe how disability and fat liberation politics are inextricably connected to migrant rights. They describe how fat and disabled people have taken a stand against the detention centers at the USA’s southern border, in the #NoBodyIsDisposable movement, and explain how ASDAH members can deepen their social justice work by taking action on this critical issue.

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No Body is Disposable!

All Bodies are Valued, Indispensable, and Cherished!

Your Body is Integral. It is necessary to make things whole.

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This is the world we fight to live in, one where all bodies are cared for, including our own. This is part of the ASDAH vision.

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Never too much: Reflections on accessibility and fatness

by Gabrielle Hruska

In the summer of 2017, I woke up one Wednesday morning, unable to walk. The pain was so intense in my right hip and ankle, and my left knee. Unbearable pain, with absolutely no recognizable reason. I went to Urgent Care, the doctor there thought maybe I had Lyme Disease, she advised me to take antibiotics, and to see my regular doctor BEFORE THE WEEKEND. By the next morning, I was unable to take the pain and went to the Emergency Room. In Radiology, they thought I had been in a car accident. After 4 days in the hospital, it was determined that I had Reactive Arthritis. Reactive Arthritis is really rare, and was described to me, as precipitated by a “perfect storm” in the body. Some kind of infection combined with food poisoning, and after the food poisoning passes, your body can go into Reactive Arthritis. I did not test positive for any kind of infection, nor did I have food poisoning… I have no idea why this happened. It takes anywhere from 6 months to a year to recover from Reactive Arthritis, and my Rheumatologist says I will always be susceptible to a flare up. I spent the entire summer using a walker. I fought desperately against the supposition that “Of course this happened, you are fat.”

Read More »Never too much: Reflections on accessibility and fatness

The Paradox of Privilege: A Call for Voices

by Dr. Jenny Copeland

(Side note: this piece is not the result of original insight, but rather the result of labor from generous folks of color, as well as queer, transgender, disabled, fat, and other oppressed people who shouldered the task of educating people with privilege, such as myself. I would not have this perspective without their work.)

Silence. They say it’s golden. That it’s deafening. That it speaks volumes.

Silence can be powerful. It can be oppressive. It can build walls to hide behind.

In reality, it is all of these. All of these, and more.

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