So if you're in the UK you have probably heard about the proposed changes to disability benefits. If not, here is a BBC News article (link) about it, and the Big Issue (link) have been running basically non-stop articles about it since the announcement.
Crucially, the government is holding a consultation. Will as many of us as possible weighing in change the outcome? Possibly, though it's far from guaranteed. Will not filling it in help the situation in the slightest? No. So let's all have a go.
You can find the full Green Paper here: (link) and the options to respond are at the bottom of it, including the link to respond online, which is also here: (link)
It's also always worth contacting your MP to let them know what you think, if only to get a response on fancy Commons stationery. You can find your MP here: (link)
So, have at it, UK folks! (These proposals don't apply to Northern Ireland as benefits are transferred, but they are still taking NI comments and sharing them with the Department for Communities, so you may be able to influence whether this approach is taken up in NI in future, too)
And if nothing else, please reblog!
pheminism 🙂‍↕️
elon musk did a nazi salute twice at the inauguration, and republicans are defending him.
trump revoked executive order 11246, which prohibited discrimination.
trump put all dei employees on leave to be fired.
trump banned all lgbtq+ flags from being hung in government buildings.
trump rolled back biden’s executive order to lower prescription drug costs for people using medicare and medicaid.
trump rescinded the $35 cap on insulin, and prices are expected to rise to $1500 a month.
trump ordered the national institutes of health to cancel their review panels on cancer research.
when sean hannity asked trump about the economy, he said “i don’t care”, after campaigning with the economy as his main talking point.
trump has withdrawn the us from the world health organization.
trump is ordering health agencies to stop reporting on bird flu and halt publications of scientific reports.
trump has pardoned over 1500 people who stormed the capitol on january 6th.
trump changed mount denali back to mount mckinley.
trump signed an executive order to rename the gulf of mexico to gulf of america.
trump shut down cbp one, an app which granted legal entry to 1 million+ immigrants.
trump is allowing ice raids at churches and elementary schools.
trump announced plans to declare a national emergency at the us-mexico border.
trump signed an executive order to expand the use of the death penalty.
trump disbanded the school safety board that works to prevent school shootings. it was comprised of survivors, educators, and gun violence prevention advocates and formed after the school shooting in parkland.
trump withdrew from the paris climate act.
trump revoked all protections for transgender troops in the us military.
trump rescinded executive orders made by biden that benefited and protected women, lgbtq+ people, black americans, hispanic americans, asian americans, native hawaiians, and pacific islanders.
trump is attempting to make it legal to refuse to hire or fire pregnant women.
multiple state legislators are drafting bills to allow the punishment for abortion to be the death penalty.
trump pardoned 23 individuals convicted under the freedom of access to clinic entrances (FACE) act for their anti-abortion activism, including oftentimes violent protests at abortion clinics.
trump signed an executive order allowing deportation of foreign students who they believe express support for hamas or hezbollah.
trump announced that the us government will from here on out only recognize male and female as sexes. intersex is not legally recognized anymore.
trump refused to swear on the bible during his inauguration.
andy ogles drafted a constitutional amendment to allow trump to be president for a third term.
georgia republican congressman mike collins called for the deportation of new jersey born mariann budde, the bishop who urged trump to “have mercy” on the lgbtq+ community and immigrants during a service at the national cathedral.
amazon revoked protections for lgbtq+ and black employees.
every single republican told us we were overreacting. trump swore he had nothing to do with project 2025 yet continues implementing details outlined in it. not a single person has the right to tell us we’re being dramatic anymore.
hope the possibility of cheaper eggs and gas was worth it.
reminders for today:
if you or someone you know might need it in the next few years, purchase plan b. the shelf life of plan b is 4 years, and we might not be able to access it as easily as we can now in the days ahead.
if you are larger/plus size: go online and purchase ella instead of plan b. plan b is less effective if you aren’t under 160 pounds.
if you can, purchase books that project 2025 is looking to ban.
mass deportations are starting. if you see ice vehicles or agents, yell ice raid and la migra as loud as you can.
if someone asks who you voted for, keep your mouth shut. they’re fishing for traitors.
if anyone, anyone at all asks about your neighbors or their legal status in the us, you know nothing. don’t be the reason that their family is separated.
if anyone asks about your religion or lack thereof, keep it vague. this administration will look for any excuse to persecute you.
your friends are trans or queer? for the next four years they’re not. don’t expose anyone’s status as a trans or queer person to anyone else, even if you think you can trust them.
did someone you know get an abortion? no, they didn’t. they were never pregnant.
in short, don’t be a snitch, and keep to yourself these next four years. we’ll make it through this even if it seems hopeless at times.
we can survive this. we’ve survived before, and we’ll survive again.
Yeah man,,,
Not the “oh Einstein was probably autistic” or the sanitized Helen Keller story. but this history disabled people have made and has been made for us.
Teach them about Carrie Buck, who was sterilized against her will, sued in 1927, and lost because “Three generations of imbeciles [were] enough.”
Teach them about Judith Heumann and her associates, who in 1977, held the longest sit in a government building for the enactment of 504 protection passed three years earlier.
Teach them about all the Baby Does, newborns in 1980s who were born disabled and who doctors left to die without treatment, who’s deaths lead to the passing of The Baby Doe amendment to the child abuse law in 1984.
Teach them about the deaf students at Gallaudet University, a liberal arts school for the deaf, who in 1988, protested the appointment of yet another hearing president and successfully elected I. King Jordan as their first deaf president.
Teach them about Jim Sinclair, who at the 1993 international Autism Conference stood and said “don’t mourn for us. We are alive. We are real. And we’re here waiting for you.”
Teach about the disability activists who laid down in front of buses for accessible transit in 1978, crawled up the steps of congress in 1990 for the ADA, and fight against police brutality, poverty, restricted access to medical care, and abuse today.
Teach about us.
oh my god...
so the first screenshot is trying to look this up on tiktok normally, "donald trump rigged election" and it says that search violates community guidelines.
the second screenshot is looking up the same exact thing, but with a (australian) vpn on. canadian vpn didn't fix it fyi.
THIS is exactly the type of censorship to be looking out for on tiktok. this actually is crazy.
I take your tank top and sweatpants and raise you chore naked
we need to start romanticizing doing household chores in tank tops and sweatpants in the same way that we romanticize knighthood and i am not fucking kidding