Ok, I do suppose my best bet for finding kindred spirits here is to make an intro post.

Howdy do, I'm Phantom Gender (they/them). I'm a scorpio, a chronically ill activist, and I like writing fiction that blurs the line between fantasy and sci-fi. Here's a bunch of hashtags:
#landback
#climateemergency
#druidry
#astrology
#nanowrimo
#finishurbookfall
#PermacultureRevolution
#permaculturecovillage
#solarpunk
#MutualAid
#disabilitytwt
#abolitionnow
#housingforall
#ecology
#Anarchisme
#abolishcapitalism
#fictionwriting

You can also find me on tumblr as PhantomGender, and I'll also be PhantomGender on bird app probably until it crashes.
I look forward to getting to know this space and getting to know yall ☆

I'm feeling a weird sadness about losing Twitter as we've come to know it. Twitter was the first place I ever felt like I found community as a visibly disabled person who, up until that point, felt completely alienated and isolated. My life and worldview were forever changed for the better after I started following disability activists like @imani_barbarin and @SeeMiaRoll. I sincerely believe I would be in quite a dark place without finding that community, and I know so many of its members have depended on that platform to connect with each other.

This article [https://crutchesandspice.com/2022/11/16/with-twitter-crumbling-it-feels-like-the-world-is-collapsing-on-disabled-people/] from @imani_barbarin really encapsulates the thoughts and feelings I've been having tonight. Even up until (what seems to be) the very end, Disability Twitter was one of the only communities that made me feel like I wasn't totally alone. If and when the old ship goes down, I hope we can create another space like the one we had, where disabled people can come together not only to support one another, but amplify each others' voices in a viciously ableist world so we can ensure a better life for all of us.

One more thing, tangentially relevant to all of the above: I'm fascinated by the following study [https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/07/11/public-attitudes-toward-political-engagement-on-social-media/], which found that 80% of Black Americans said social media helps shed light on rarely discussed issues, while the same share of white Americans said these sites distract from "more important issues". I would not be surprised if similar results were found across various marginalized groups versus privileged groups. As a queer disabled woman, the physical safety and anonymity of online spaces (as opposed to the physical danger and forced recognition of the real world) makes them feel like the only place I can express my experiences as a marginalized person without fearing retribution, ostracization, and so on. Most of the people I've seen celebrating the demise of Twitter have been cishet white men, which is interesting in context with this study.

[Reposting because I tagged the wrong Imani in my original post — my bad; still new to posting original Toots on this app!]

#Disability #DisabilityTwt #DisabilityTwitter