Power is Sexy and...

Action is HOT!

[image description right: a picture of a sticker on my knee from the national gay and lesbian task force. It says "ACTION IS HOT." I wish I'd managed to get a "POWER IS SEXY" one]

This week ADAPT is in Atlanta fighting for "COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS, NOT INSTITUTIONS!" I wish I was there. I wish I was chanting along with everyone while Randy, Anita, and Dallas lead while marching past Ebenezer Baptist Church (Home of Martin Luther King Jr). I wish I was there to hear Sue Jamison and Lois Curtis of the Olmstead Case. I wish I was there to meet Dolores and sing Happy Birthday to her. It is indeed a very HAPPY birthday for Dolores -- her first one on the outside after being institutionalized for 43 years. I wish I was there to invade the Georgia state capital building right now as I am writing this.

[image description left: Sue Jamison, lawyer in the Olmstead case speaks to ADAPT with a sign language interpreter (?) to her right image description right: HAPPY birthday Dolores!!!]

But I am NOT down in Atlanta; I am here at home in Baltimore and I am missing my brothers and sisters terribly.

says you: If you are not there how do you know?
says me: TWITTER.

As luck would have it, on Thursday, the Disability Policy Collaboration was lobbying congress for the Community First Choice Option and the CLASS act. ADAPT couldn't be there, some were already down in Atlanta, so another Maryland ADAPTer and I attempted to go down. It made me feel better about not going. We felt like we were doing our part. But of course there was a big transportation SNAFUBAR and that didn't happen.

BUT... as I was lamenting on Friday someone I haven't known all that long realized I was an activist and came over. She's an activist. She's involved a little in the LGBT movement and the consumer movement (mental health) and has worked some in the DD world. She wanted to know if I wanted to go to the National Equality March in DC yesterday.

says my roomate: But you're not gay...
says me: So... My friend is Bi and I'm down with it.

Again, it was my opportunity to do my part, even if it was a different movement (hence the sticker). She hadn't heard about the Town Hall/Mixer for the LGBT and disabled community. We both wanted to go, weren't able to figure out the logistics. So we went to the march/rally. What was cool was that I was marching in DC at the very same time ADAPT was marching through the streets in Atlanta and I was checking my twitter txts all along the way. We were playing drums when they were playing drums! It wasn't the same though. I don't know if it was because they weren't my people so I didn't have the same feelings or it really wasn't as good. My friend thought it was just ok too. There wasn't any energy. As one "march"er said, "We're not marching, we're strolling."

I wore my teal/purple ADAPT shirt with my solid long sleeve orange shirt underneath and a borrowed ADAPT zip up hoodie hoping someone would ask questions and no one did. Should I have started shouting "COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS, NOT INSTITUTIONS?" That would have gotten me attention :-)