Ableism and queerphobia seem primarily connected in that both utilize medicine and psychiatry to prop up the underlying structure of patriarchy. A lot of people have it the wrong way around, believing that bigotries --such as ableism-- are what give rise to systems of oppression, when the other way around is actually more accurate: bigotry is, first and foremost, wielded as a weapon to maintain systems of oppression. Transphobia and homophobia exist, by and large, to safeguard patriarchy. Ableism is utilized, though far from exclusively, to this end as well. These prejudices are employed to protect the nuclear family and the subservience of woman to man, in order to facilitate social reproduction and the reproduction of class society.
Psychiatry, and the medical field in general, have since their inception been complicit in --and often expressly aimed at-- protecting the so-called "natural order of things" in service of class interests. Much like race science was constructed to naturalize, justify and uphold slavery, colonialism and segregation, so do we have psychiatric diagnoses doing the same to uphold the sanctity of the gender binary and heterosexual monogamy. Any deviation from these norms is labeled as disordered precisely because it is a threat to the basic logic of patriarchy. And since our economic base is still reliant on the patriarchal nuclear family, any time the economy is in downturn we also experience a reactionary push for "traditional family values" which helps absorb economic shock in the form of free domestic labor from wives and children. This is accompanied by vitriolic ableism designed to push aside and silence those who are impacted by a struggling economy the most.
