🖤 pinned intro 🖤
I'm Avigayil (Avi). 23, white, Jewish, mad/ill & a bi woman. abolitionist. harm reductionist via “profession,” direct action/movement/community, & lived reality.
comments & notifications will come from @gefiltebiitch (almost same URL but with two i’s) - this used to be a temporary/side blog, but it took off and history/followers got established over here.
**I'm sometimes more active on my twitter @AYocheved**
who I am + some things I discuss:
-from Minneapolis, living in Eugene since ‘17, in the process of moving full-time to Portland to be with community/organizing family.
-agnostic, practicing Jew from an interfaith family, I go to a Reconstructionist shul.
-nd / traumatized / mad / chronically ill / uses certain drugs under prohibition conditions ---> psych system dropout & unrepentant junkie.
-I've been dx’d as autistic & adhd w. cptsd + (potentially) bipolar II - I have limited trust in the DSM to convey my experiences (name them in order to find tools + community? sure. contextualize them accurately & acknowledge the ways systems/institutions contribute? unlikely), but these do say something.
-Harm Reductionist/peer worker, aspiring/growing drug user union organizer
-politically self-identified PWUD (person who uses (stigmatized, criminalized) drugs):
healing from certain past harmful use, but that is not my experience with every drug, nor with those specific drugs at all times.
not personally sober or in long term abstinence. sometimes not-using or quitting something, as one situational tool I use for wellbeing - I also have various harm reduction tools/practices involving active use.
always the fascinated kid who grew up reading Erowid. always impacted for the better by various drug experiences. certain drugs saved my life, despite their drawbacks - prohibition + trauma + stigma almost took it.
not innately disordered or destined to be problematic in my use. sometimes subjected to marginalizing + isolating + disordered processes, which I react(ed) to in a pattern. learning to escape those patterns when they do not serve me. learning to thrive, be safer, and build myself (/ fight for) a better "rat park".
short version: I do not identify as an addict, I do not wish to be dx’d with a substance use disorder. my substance use experiences have been varied, often helpful, and the most harmful/problematic ones have been directly tied to the conditions of complex trauma, prohibition, isolation, stigma, + resource disparities.
-opioid overdose survivor. people should not have to use drugs in isolation, facing prohibition + unsafe/non-consensual supply. even if/when we are unwell, or our use becomes problematic, we should not have to die.
-highly influenced- in the way I self-identify, my politics, & my advocacy/community care work- by my mentors in HIV/AIDS organizing, sex worker organizing, & the first decades of drug user union organizing, in the US and internationally.
see my Harm Reduction and Drug User Politics tags for more writings on these topics!
-organizer with a street outreach-based harm reduction mutual aid collective run by PWUD in PDX, as well as our city’s recently founded Drug User Union
-national Never Use Alone volunteer operator: (800) 484-3731 - we are a largely peer-run hotline, including several operators who are active users; DM me for more info on our procedures, confidentiality, general vibe etc.
-former field organizer & regional deputy director on a (very flawed/inadequate but long overdue) drug decrim campaign in OR.
-intern/peer worker at a needle exchange program.
-in my 4th and hopefully final year of undergrad.
-my paid work right now = restaurant work + some sex work + some drug policy work when there are scraps of that + some paid harm reduction work when there are scraps of that.
-bi, nb woman (she/he/xe/they - anything, really).
I was mentored/raised (especially as a teenager) by butch/femme lesbians in my community, and butch/femme subcultural histories + present spaces have been a special interest & second home for years, so they have remained a “root” and deep, loving influence on my gender nonconformity & sense of gay self-expression - even though I don’t necessarily feel that either “lesbian”, “butch” or ”femme” are an appropriate/accurate/complete fit to describe me anymore (having spent past periods of my development exploring/identifying fervently with each) & things have gotten more complicated than that. I still feel kinship, solidarity, familial ties and even still significant overlap with those roots.
-non-monogamous
-I love: writing, chemistry/pharmacology, history/literature (fav specific topics/histories: LGBT, substance use, sex work, fashion subculture, disability + madness politics, peer-led harm redux movement, early chemistry/pharmacology/apothecary), music, clarinet performance, foraging, languages, street medic-ing, mutual aid, permaculture, films, & cooking.
asks and reblogs are always welcome! lmk me if you need anything tagged.
if you know me IRL, even if we’re close, please ask before reading posts or following (ppl who don't know me offline can follow whenever). I use this for personal journaling, so I like to have a heads-up.
see my harm reduction and drug politics tags for serious thoughts on those things.
[END OF MAIN INTRO]
a couple lil soapboxes/in-progress manifestos, under readmore:
[about harm reduction work & its complex relationships to formal institutions/”helping” professions, the idea of “recovery activism/advocacy,” etc]:
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