I’m just curious about this. As someone with a chronic illness, I pretty much never hear anyone talk about things related to the sorts of difficulties and discrimination I and others might face within society. I’m not aware of companies or governments doing anything special to bring awareness on the same scale of say, pride month for instance. In fact certain aspects of accessibility were only normalized during the pandemic when healthy people needed them and now they’re being gradually rescinded now that they don’t. It’s annoying for those who’ve come to prefer those accommodations. It’s cruel for those who rely on them.
And just to be clear, I’m not suggesting this is an either or sort of thing. I’m just wondering why it’s not a that and this sort of thing. It’s possible I’m not considering the whole picture here, and I don’t mean for this to be controversial.
LGBTQ+ issues are kind of a warzone right now, because conservatives see trans rights issues especially as a wedge issue they can use to pull in people who might support gay marriage but still feel confused or grossed out by things like trans women using women’s bathrooms.
This conversation eats up a lot of the space that could be used to talk about things that would (should?) actually be less controversial, like accessibility.
Conservatives don’t want to talk about it because it would be a straightforward loser for them. Lots of progressives don’t have time to talk about it because they’re circling the wagons to fight for trans people having the right to… (checks notes) exist.
This isn’t to say disability issues aren’t as important. The point of intersectional activism is for many disparate groups to fight together against the kinds of people who want to separate them. A rising tide that helps everyone.
It sucks because it’s slow and painful and people get increasingly tribal when they feel under threat.