*taps mic* the queer community needs to make more effort to make pride events accessible despite corporate influence on pride and structural inaccessibility.
the queer community needs to hype up disability pride month (july btw) while queer pride month is happening. the queer community needs to amplify disabled queer experiences.
the queer community needs to recognize intersex people and how many of us have disabilities related to our intersex variation - and this Still Does Not Prove Eugenicists Right.
the queer community needs to fight ableism and love disabled people. queer or not. also quick question. why do you think the right paints us as insane predators.
i was on the phone with my father earlier today talking about videogames (typical for conversation with my father), i was telling him about my lord of the rings online character who i imagine is a horse-thief from rohan and my father said “i imagine that is a very serious crime in rohan” with real concern in his voice
"Ways You Can Actually Support Disabled Folks (this month and every month!!) by @courtneyahndesign and @candy.courn of Instagram!
Image descriptions (written by original poster):
Slide 1: a multi-colored green, blue, orange, white, and black illustration on a pink background with a lighter pink wavy border. Across the top half reads in handwritten white type, “ways you can actually support disabled folks (this month and every month!)” Below and above are illustrations of different figures, a mixed race person with a mask and urostomy bag, a white woman wearing headphones, a Black woman in hijab in a wheelchair, a Black woman wearing headphones, a service dog, a masked mixed race woman with a limb difference, and a white person in a wheelchair. At the very bottom reads the artist and author credit @CourtneyAhnDesign and @candy.courn.
Slide 2: a multi-colored green, blue, orange, white, and black illustration on a pink background with a lighter pink wavy border. In the top right corner reads, “1” in a styled bubble. Across the top reads in handwritten white type, “make your content accessible!” In the lower half is a large piece of paper labeled, “quick checklist” that reads in different bullets: "captions + image/video descriptions, multiple communication methods (visual, audio, scannable text), capitalize multi-word hashtags, use plain direct language, high color/visual contrast, structure your content, easy to read fonts + larger font sizes, limit emoji use." To the side is an illustration of a Black man with a hearing aid looking at their phone. At the very bottom reads the artist and author credit @CourtneyAhnDesign and @candy.courn.
Slide 3: a multi-colored green, blue, orange, white, and black illustration on a pink background with a lighter pink wavy border. In the top right corner reads, “2” in a styled bubble. Across the top reads in handwritten white type, “wear a mask in all public spaces!” In the center is a line-up of different illustrated masks, with a cloth and surgical mask labeled as “worse” and KN95, N95, and respirator masks labeled as “better.” In the bottom half reads, “The pandemic never ended for us. Both disabled and non-disabled folks are still being killed and permanently disabled by Covid everyday. We all deserve the right to community safety - so if you can wear a mask, wear one, take precautions, keep getting vaccinations, speak up against mask bans, and require them in all spaces!” At the very bottom reads the artist and author credit @CourtneyAhnDesign and @candy.courn.
Slide 4: a multi-colored green, blue, orange, white, and black illustration on a pink background with a lighter pink wavy border. In the top right corner reads, “3” in a styled bubble. Across the top reads in handwritten white type, “include us in your activism!” Below are different text boxes, the first one resembling a paper reading, “tell Congress to increase the SSI asset limit so we can get married + have more than $3000 without losing benefits.” A green bubble with a pencil reads, “tell your state it’s not okay to pay us below minimum wage (it’s still legal in 37 states!)” In a black cloud reads, “supporting a free Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Tigray, Haiti (and more) is disability justice!” In the bottom left reads, "fight with us as the administration attacks Section 504, the integration mandate, and makes deadly cuts to health insurance, SNAP, and the Department of Education!" In the bottom right is an illustration of a Black woman with a colostomy bag gesturing towards the text. At the very bottom reads the artist and author credit @CourtneyAhnDesign and @candy.courn.
Slide 5: a multi-colored green, blue, orange, white, and black illustration on a pink background with a lighter pink wavy border. In the top right corner reads, “4” in a styled bubble. Across the top reads in handwritten white type, “respect labels! Disabled is not a bad word, but do skip euphemisms, outdated terms, and phrases with ableist roots!” Below is an assortment of speech bubbles, the first column reading, “differently-abled” “special needs” and “handicapable. The second column reads, “cripple” “handicapped” and “r*tard.” The third column reads, “that’s so lame!” “turn a blind eye” and “I’m so OCD!” Below reads, “Everyone is entitled to choose the terms that define them but respecting labels doesn’t mean anything if you don’t do anything beyond that for us!” At the very bottom reads the artist and author credit @CourtneyAhnDesign and @candy.courn.
Slide 6: a multi-colored green, blue, orange, white, and black illustration on a pink background with a lighter pink wavy border. In the top right corner reads, “5” in a styled bubble. Across the top reads in handwritten white type, “advocate for accessible spaces!” In the lower half is a large piece of paper labeled, “prioritize disabled folks in every space and include them in the planning!” that reads in different bullets, “ramps + elevators, wide aisles + doorways, shade + a/c, seating, interpreters, open captions, braille/audio, clear itinerary, list all available accommodations, quiet + sensory free areas, requires masks, close parking + transit access, accessible bathrooms, clear + large signage, disability trained staff, allow requests with sign-up." At the very bottom reads the artist and author credit @CourtneyAhnDesign and @candy.courn.
Slide 7: a multi-colored green, blue, orange, white, and black illustration on a pink background with a lighter pink wavy border. In the top right corner reads, “5” in a styled bubble. Across the top reads in handwritten white type, “amplify and support disabled businesses + org’s!” In the middle is a collection of speech bubbles labeled, “barriers” that includes, “attitudinal, physical, policy, social communication.” Below reads, “disabled folks face increased barriers to success in every space and need your continued support all year round (not just during disability pride month)!” In a black cloud reads at the bottom next to an illustration of Courn with a pink mullet, “Ps: I’m a disabled queer asian artist who sells my art + offers logo, web, + illustration services!” At the very bottom reads the artist and author credit @CourtneyAhnDesign and @candy.courn.
before we start posting that july is gay wrath month let’s consider that july is disability pride month first and foremost. the “be gay do crimes” memes can wait
before this post breaches containment and people start going “why not both hehehe” i want you to seriously consider the very long history of disabled people’s existence being pushed aside and/or seen as secondary. i promise you it’s not going to hurt to hold onto the memes and give disabled people space for visibility and celebration.
i say this as a disabled trans person whose trans identity is made front-and-center to the (mainly cis) people who know i’m trans but my identity as a disabled person is brushed off by the very same people.
The recent hot VS cold polls have made me realise that a lot of people have no idea how to cool down.
As someone from a hot country that's regularly on fire, here's some tips:
WATER IS YOUR FRIEND! WATER! IS! YOUR! FRIEND! You can transfer SO much heat into this bad boy! You cannot cool down without water!
Wrists under the cold tap. Splash your face and the back of your neck. Fan yourself.
In some countries you can buy a little handeld fan with a water sprayer.
Damp tea towel around the neck. Stick an ice pack in there on hotter days.
Half fill a water bottle with water, stick in freezer. If you use a bottle with a straw, make sure it's lying on its side with the straw side up and out of the water. When frozen top up the rest of the way with tap water and off you go.
Desperate to cool off? Wet T-shirt. Sit in front of a fan. This will nuke it, just don't get hypothermia and don't fall asleep like this.
Cold showers are also your friend in summer. Some people get psyched up by these. Personally, I sleep like a baby, so I'm good to have them before bed. Just keep in mind that it takes a bit of time for the cool to circulate, so your body will tell you that you're colder than you actually are. I find that when I have cold showers I need to step out of the spray when I think I'm cold... I'll just wait, and thirty seconds later the temperature has evened out and I actually need to step under again. Rinse and repeat until you maintain coolness even after stepping out for a bit.
If you can't do cold showers, turn the cold shower on anyway and just stick your arms under. When they're cold, lift your arms up above your head. The sensation of cool blood draining into your body is fucking weird and kinda unpleasant but less unpleasant than being hot.
Feet in a tub of water with ice. Blood naturally flows to your extremities when hot, so take advantage of this. If you don't have a tub of ice water, sticking a wet rag on your feet in front of the fan works too, it's the less powerful version of the wet T-shirt.
Drinks lots of water but make sure that water has electrolytes as well. Stay in the shade.
Keep air circulating. Fans don't actually cool rooms down, they just help transfer heat from your body to the moisture on your skin or the air via evaporative cooling.
Block north facing windows early in the morning so the sun doesn't get in. If you're in the northern hemisphere, this is opposite for you. Keep in mind that if your home is brick, the bricks will still heat up and slowly release heat into your home even after the sun goes down so this will only do so much.
If it's hotter inside than outside, close all your windows but two, making sure they're on opposite sides of the house/unit you're in. Point a fan out of one window, making sure that the doors between the rooms with the open windows are all open. This will help create a mini pressure system in your home, pulling cooler air in and pushing the hotter air out via the fan. Bonus points if you can get that fan high up where the hot air rises; even within a single room the top is much hotter than the air by the floor. Adjust the amount of open windows based on how many fans you have, but generally you want more windows with fans open than windows without fans to keep the pressure correct.
Obviously, use your common sense for these. Not everything WILL work for you, just use the stuff that does and adjust what needs to be adjusted. Some of these will be impossible to use in the workplace but others you can still use. Others are best used at home. If humidity impacts your ability to use any of these, get a dehumidifier if that's an option, or use more ice instead of evaporation.
Also keep in mind that the skinnier you are, the faster these will work. More fat means more insulation, means more heat, so you may need to be more patient with some of these or use them in combination.
For some context missing from this post, these aren't just beautiful photos of Lupita posing with a basket of beautifully arranged fruit. There are 77 fruits of varying sizes in that basket, each representing one of her uterine fibroids.
She's been trying to raise awareness around uterine fibroids and the pain they cause, so stripping that context from these pictures seems wilder than usual. Sure you could go to her instagram to see more details, but how many people are gonna do that?
The MRI on her Instagram post is absolutely unbelievable.
Fibroids and endometriosis are absolute demons from hell, they wreck lives and steal hopes and ambitions and I wish them a very happy fuck off forever.
