Tag: Disability Justice
The Intersection of Driving, Disability, and Being Black
Michael Saunders
Director of Money Follows the Person
Independence Now
Traffic stops are already dangerous and have proven deadly for black drivers, and when you add disability, your risk increases. My fear of a traffic stop is one that I have all the time. Not long ago, it came true on the DC Capital Beltway. I was driving down the beltway when I looked in my rearview mirror to see a state trooper following me. I knew at that point he would pull me over. When he did, my heart was beating because I immediately thought about our location and what he would do when I told him my wallet was in my wheelchair backpack. At first, he didn’t get out of the car, and he was talking through his car speaker. I couldn’t tell him I was in a wheelchair, and I couldn’t do what he asked, which was to get out of the car. I wasn’t speeding too much that required me to get out, so I didn’t understand why that was being requested.
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To Better Understand Intersectionality and Health Justice, Look to the Experiences of People Living With HIV
By: Tyler Cochran, JD
Due to incredible, cutting edge advancements in antiretroviral therapies that treat HIV, and pre-exposure prophylactics that reduce transmission rates, people living with HIV have never been so able to exercise their sexual agency, bodily autonomy, and freedom to love. With each passing day, we endeavor to move towards the visions for our collective future imagined by visionaries such as Marsha P. Johnson and her contemporaries at organizations such as ACT UP— visions of liberation for all people living with HIV, and of a world that fully values the dignity, brilliance, and worth of those living with HIV who are most marginalized by racism, transphobia and homophobia, and poverty.
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