Reaching Out For Help Feels Like This:

I know I'm shouting into the void with this one but like. Genuinely so many low support needs people dont understand what it's like having even medium support needs. Like I am entirely dependent on other people for many of my needs. I can not see a doctor without someone else scheduling the appointment, taking me there and doing a large amount of the communication for me.

If my caretaker had not been accepting of me being trans and invested hundreds of hours into psych appointments and taking me to my endocrinologist and doing all the paperwork involved with my name change and literally taking a week off work to stay with me in the hospital for surgery etc i would have just like. Never transitioned. My ability to transition was entirely dependent on a singular person and that's what a lot of other parts of my life are like as well. and that's fucking terrifying and a great way to be neglected and abused in ways that are horribly hard to get away from.

I dont drive, I dont work, I struggle to leave the house at all, I dont fucking communicate with people majority of the time. The things that are hard for you? I probably can not do them to begin with. No one in my family lives even close to a comparable life to me. None of my irl friends do. I'm incredibly isolated.

And then I go online and see people rant about how easy MSN and HSN people have it because we just get everything we need and how because people can tell we are disabled everything is so easy because none of you even manage to listen to us talk about the neglect and abuse and trauma we face/d. I see people angry at their (more) disabled siblings for getting care they need to survive instead of mad at society for creating a system where its incredibly hard for families to take care of both a higher support needs child and another child.

And I see people who live completely independent lives who work and drive and make their own doctors appointments and grocery shop and travel by themselves call themselves MSN (I could go on a rant about how that's also often the fault of LSN influencers for not leaving a lot of room in their own community for legitimate struggle but that's for another day).

I just want my needs met. I want to be able to decide where I live. I want choice in my care. I want to be able to have community with those like me. I want others to realize I exist and leave the words i have to describe my existence alone. I want others to listen to what I have to say about what my life is like.

just got a second hand babydoll dress i am WINNING.

Hello! I'm going to be running some lessons on queer stuff in my highschools Queer Student Union, and I plan on doing one or two days dedicated to us intersex people. What core concepts do you think i should I teach someone who has never even heard of intersex people before?

Oh excellent! I have a lot of recommendations, so this is going to be a long one.

What is intersex, and what it isn't - We are people whose natural sex characteristics fall outside of what is typically male or female. Here is a list of intersex conditions/variations you can use as examples.

Being intersex is not the same as being transgender or nonbinary, and is a separate category from gender identity; you do not transition into being intersex. Intersex is not a third sex, but rather an 'other' category, for those whose natural development does not fit typical ideas of male or female bodies.

Not all intersex people identify as LGBTQIA+, which should be respected, just as it should be respected that intersexuality is a valid and included reason someone can consider themselves part of the community. Intersex people are included in pride.

We are not disordered for our intersex traits, intersexuality is a natural occurrence in any population with males and females. Some intersex variations do come with associated health conditions, but it is not the intersex part of the variation that is the health condition, and not everyone with intersex traits has health complications. I would recommend this page We are More Than a Disorder, and this statement on DSD terminology from InterACT, one of the most prominent intersex advocacy groups.

It is not in our best interest to forcefully sort us into the male & female sex binary. Intersex people can be any gender and may consider their sex to be male or female (this may or may not be in addition to being intersex. Many of us consider ourselves to be intersex males or intersex females, and some of us consider ourselves to just be intersex) It is wrong to say phrases such as 'all intersex people are male or female', or 'intersex variations are sex specific'. Sorting us into this binary comes with the caveat that we are 'wrong' males or 'wrong' females, rather than normal, fully formed, intersex human beings. This is the basis of the oppression we face.

Be sure to note that no intersex people, including those with genital variations, have both reproductive organs, we are not H-words (good time to add that this word is outdated/derogatory and I considered a slur). A hermaphrodite can only come from a hermaphroditic species, such as snails and worms. The use of the term hermaphrodite itself should be discouraged, even in context of animals. A term like monoecious is much better. The term hermaphrodite and pseudohermaphrodite used to be medical terms for us, and was commonly used in the early days of intersex activism, such as here. An intersex person may reclaim this word, but it is inappropriate and wrong to refer to an intersex person this way.

Intersex variations are not rare. We make up over 2% of the population (there is no accurate statistic because of a number of factors, intersex variations are extremely underreported, or erased from medical records). We are a widely invisible group who has been purposely erased with medical violence for decades. We are considered "rare" because of 'corrective' and 'normalizing' treatments. Intersex healthcare as it currently stands is more concerned with making us 'look normal' rather than making sure we are healthy. I would recommend reading @dabwax's paper Medicalizing Sex: The Erasure of Sexual Diversity, and this TED Talk by Georgiann Davis. include what you will from that in your lesson. Don't skimp out on the medical erasure part, it is very very very important for anyone learning about intersex people to be aware of just how far behind our movement for bodily autonomy is.

These medical interventions are not a thing of the past, and happen in all of the grey shaded countries on this map. Not only do they happen, they are often considered proper medical protocol.

I hope this is helpful! Good luck!

If any others want to add on, please feel free!

ITCHING to do stuff. ANYTHING lemme cook or clean or write or sew or draw anything please im so bored

theres been 2 times in my life where i lost every friend i had for being sick its ruthless out there

I didn’t get a lot of love growing up. Things got worse the more queer I became.

I love the way our community does found-family. I spent most of my life finding lost queers and helping them. People come and people go but I was always welcoming people into my family. Always giving what I could give. Always sharing what I know. Always sharing connections.

When I got sick everyone left. Everyone left and I am a ghost.

Turns out when you give give give give and give…people are happy to take.

They don’t come back for you when you need it.

They leave when there’s nothing left to take.

“consistency is key” doesn’t apply to many disabled people.

going to the doctor and having them tell me that, and that i need to stick to a schedule they have deemed appropriate is completely comedic.

what about the fact that my health and ability to do anything is a constant gamble? it can change drastically and almost instantly at any given time.

what about how right now i can stand up and make myself breakfast, but by lunch time? who knows. i may be unable to even sit up.

how do u listen to me explain that i dont have a daily or weekly schedule because of how unpredictable my health is, and reply by giving me a schedule.

do you not think i have tried to stick to a routine and schedule like all the healthy people around me??

all i see is people with consistency. i grew up thinking i was broken because i couldnt. i have pushed myself to breaking points trying to fit your mould of success and health.

im sorry if you experience this too. im going to make another post about what consistency can look like for me and other disabled people. because while we dont fit the classic definition of it, there are ways we can make our own version. i wish doctors would listen to me and would help me find my version instead of insisting on theirs, but they havent, so i wanna try help others find theirs. prt. 2 here (now going to make multiple more posts on this topic lol)

some of you clowns seem real confused so let me break it down for you:

using the r word to call someone stupid or to refer to disabled people is not slur reclamation.

it is just using a slur.

Has anyone said this yet

I PAINTED FOR LIKE 20 MINS TODAY WOOOOO!! first time in over a month

i have so much art i need to get out of my brain its all stuck in there while i cant do any 😭😭😭😭😭

guys what wards do young people go to, im always the only young adult in my wards, im clearly missing out on the cool areas 😔😔