If you carry one thing with you today, let it be this: you are beautiful, you matter, and you are loved.
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“Disability” is an umbrella term which encompasses physical disabilities, emotional/psychiatric disabilities, neurodivergence, intellectual/developmental disabilities, sensory disabilities, invisible disabilities, and more. You do not have to have an official diagnosis to consider yourself disabled.
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Not so fun fact I learned today! They can reduce your SSI and make your spouse make up the rest if you get married. It even applies to common law marriage. That’s just straight up eugenics, but what do you expect from the world’s most evil, genocidal, settler-colonialist country in the world behind Isnotreal!
That’s almost comically evil wtf. How much is it reduced? And what if your spouse can’t pay?
I’ve read anything from 25% to 70% and the worst part is they also go after Medicaid benefits
Is it eugenics because it’s a disinsentive to get married as a disabled person? I never thought about it that way but it makes sense. Education about eugenics is very lacking in schools given how dangerous and prevalent it is. I’d like to learn more about its history, what role it plays in today’s society and how to tackle it for disability rights movement if anyone has book recs.
Robert Chapman’s Empire of Normality is exactly what you’re looking for
Thank you, this seems like a great book
In my mind it disincentivizes disabled folks from starting families since marriage has a lot of benefits for couples with children. Sure an extra $2000 tax break is a big help but it certainly doesn’t cover that lost monthly income!
Yes that makes sense. The way our governments ‘help’ us with below poverty income that is only given if you basically work a full time job in proving you’re actually too sick to work and on top of that is controlling your life because of all the rules attached is truly rage inducing :)
THIS. I get so angry when people claim disability claimants sit around having a nice time for free. It’s a full time job being disabled with all the insanity you have to go through to get and keep benefits, plus appeals, endless medical appointments and treatments, etc.
Although I’ve never had any interest in getting married myself, I’ve always been angry about the lack of marriage equality of disabled people and the fact that nobody seems to care. I’d never thought of it as being eugenics before but that makes a lot of sense.
If you and your spouse are both on SSI I believe your combined benefits drop by at least 1/3.
yep. and SSI isn’t enough to live on, so you gotta have someone supporting you… i have many disabled friends who live with abusive/transphobic parents still because they just can’t get out. another disabled friend who got married, and she’s completely financially dependant on her husband. they have a good relationship but it’s so scary to think about how ripe that kind of dependence is for abuse