Post by Ayla on Feb 16, 2016 17:13:27 GMT 8
Xander McDonald wrote this reflection on the lack of LGBTQ and disability-sensitive services in Arizona in the wake of the police killing of Kayden Clarke, an autistic trans man from Arizona who was consistently denied access to needed services. Kayden Clarke’s murder is not an isolated event, and as we mourn his death, we also must mourn the inexcusable police violence and murders of people of color, including trans people of color — particularly black trans women, who bear the brunt of violence against trans people — and disabled people of color. Since systems of oppression work together, we also have to work together to combat racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism and create safer spaces in our communities.
The LGBTQ community won’t embody social justice until we recognize that discrimination against other groups is our issue, too. Xander, a trans and autistic community organizer, has witnessed and experienced the ableism, homophobia, and transphobia in current state services that contributed to Kayden’s murder. In response to Arizona’s failings, Xander has created support for autistic and other disabled LGBTQ people in Arizona through a group called Purple Lighthouse.
Kayden Clarke was an autistic transgender man killed by Mesa police on the morning of February 4, 2016. I didn’t know Kayden, but I had some friends who did. I am also autistic and trans and I live next door to Mesa. We shared common experiences. I watched his YouTube videos after Voc Rehab had dropped him and I thought, “Yeah, that’s exactly how Voc Rehab dropped myself and my daughter out of the program too.” Gatekeeping. You see that in Arizona over and over again. That’s why we’re 50th in the nation for disability funding, 50th for mental health funding.
I was at an Aspergers meeting years back when the Mesa police officer from the CIT program came to speak. He did not know what the term Aspergers was. We were all a bit alarmed at his negative attitude toward disabled people. His idea of autism was Rainman. We all tried talking to him, explaining things like how we can lose our ability to speak in crisis, but it didn’t do any good. He was not open to listening to us. We came away from that meeting feeling that a police shooting was bound to happen to an autistic person in our area. Fear of the police has run deep in the Phoenix autistic community for years. We read about the deaths of Stephon Watts from Chicago, Steven Washington from Los Angeles, Jeremy Mardis from Louisiana. No one knows how many disabled Americans are killed in police encounters every year, but the ACLU says it’s in the hundreds....
www.autostraddle.com/kayden-clarke-how-the-state-of-arizona-failed-him-long-ago-327980/
The LGBTQ community won’t embody social justice until we recognize that discrimination against other groups is our issue, too. Xander, a trans and autistic community organizer, has witnessed and experienced the ableism, homophobia, and transphobia in current state services that contributed to Kayden’s murder. In response to Arizona’s failings, Xander has created support for autistic and other disabled LGBTQ people in Arizona through a group called Purple Lighthouse.
Kayden Clarke was an autistic transgender man killed by Mesa police on the morning of February 4, 2016. I didn’t know Kayden, but I had some friends who did. I am also autistic and trans and I live next door to Mesa. We shared common experiences. I watched his YouTube videos after Voc Rehab had dropped him and I thought, “Yeah, that’s exactly how Voc Rehab dropped myself and my daughter out of the program too.” Gatekeeping. You see that in Arizona over and over again. That’s why we’re 50th in the nation for disability funding, 50th for mental health funding.
I was at an Aspergers meeting years back when the Mesa police officer from the CIT program came to speak. He did not know what the term Aspergers was. We were all a bit alarmed at his negative attitude toward disabled people. His idea of autism was Rainman. We all tried talking to him, explaining things like how we can lose our ability to speak in crisis, but it didn’t do any good. He was not open to listening to us. We came away from that meeting feeling that a police shooting was bound to happen to an autistic person in our area. Fear of the police has run deep in the Phoenix autistic community for years. We read about the deaths of Stephon Watts from Chicago, Steven Washington from Los Angeles, Jeremy Mardis from Louisiana. No one knows how many disabled Americans are killed in police encounters every year, but the ACLU says it’s in the hundreds....
www.autostraddle.com/kayden-clarke-how-the-state-of-arizona-failed-him-long-ago-327980/