Aaaah! Yes! I had the reverse experience—when I first started to find community as a disabled person, I couldn't help but draw parallels to the experience I had as a queer person who figured that out at an early age. I love that both communities recognize the multiplicities of identities within the umbrella, and how community solidarity plays out.
One thing I also notice is how we have such limited language given to us by the dominant cishetero/non-disabled culture, which means folks often change the labels we use once we have found community. Like, growing up I thought it was just straight or gay but I was aware that I had different kinds of attraction, so when I first heard the term bisexual it was revolutionary. And then identifying as bisexual gave me access to queer community and culture and language and suddenly the ways of naming my experience expanded from just three options to...well, as many as you fancy. Same thing happened for me with disability where I started out calling myself a spoonie but feeling like I was "not really disabled" and then, with my foot in the door of disability culture, the words and terms and descriptions for experiences bust wide open from the limited stories I'd been told by ableds.
Also, I got your book last week! I have been reading it ever since and it is such a wonderful gift to the world! I am so glad you wrote it!
Aaaah! Yes! I had the reverse experience—when I first started to find community as a disabled person, I couldn't help but draw parallels to the experience I had as a queer person who figured that out at an early age. I love that both communities recognize the multiplicities of identities within the umbrella, and how community solidarity plays out.
One thing I also notice is how we have such limited language given to us by the dominant cishetero/non-disabled culture, which means folks often change the labels we use once we have found community. Like, growing up I thought it was just straight or gay but I was aware that I had different kinds of attraction, so when I first heard the term bisexual it was revolutionary. And then identifying as bisexual gave me access to queer community and culture and language and suddenly the ways of naming my experience expanded from just three options to...well, as many as you fancy. Same thing happened for me with disability where I started out calling myself a spoonie but feeling like I was "not really disabled" and then, with my foot in the door of disability culture, the words and terms and descriptions for experiences bust wide open from the limited stories I'd been told by ableds.
Also, I got your book last week! I have been reading it ever since and it is such a wonderful gift to the world! I am so glad you wrote it!