REV. GARRETT A. FOSTER
Celebrant • Writer • Enneagram Guide
WE ALL MATTER!
By Anonymous
I care about the rights of gay and trans people, and all minority groups. I love vampires, witches, and characters who are misunderstood. Their stories, both real and fictional, capture something I understand very well.
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I deeply understand the fear experienced about being called the “other.” People like me feel we must protect ourselves from those who want to eliminate and harm us.
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As a neurodivergent person, on the autistic spectrum, I am in the minority in this country. I have often had to mask to appear more neurotypical. “Ableism,” a form of prejudice, sees neurodiverse people as less than neurotypicals.
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This prejudice appears in many subtle ways. For example, neurotypicals often mock neurodivergent children and adults for enjoying interests and experiences that don’t seem “normal” or “mature.” They don’t allow us to just be ourselves!
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Neurotypical people don't put that same pressure on each other. Many neurotypicals enjoy Disney media and love to cosplay, or dress up, as their favorite characters. No one tells them that they are less mature or normal for embracing those things.
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Neurodivergent people have relied on masking for our very survival.
Neurodivergent people were targeted and killed during the Holocaust.
Hans Asperger reported that neurodivergent people could be useful to society to save them from being killed by the Nazis.
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In this country we have disability rights, but they are on the line. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as well as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) are now being threatened if Project 2025 is implemented.
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The ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation created Project 2025 with the support of MAGA politicians and lawmakers including Donald Trump despite his claiming otherwise. Project 2025 plans to gouge federal assistance that helps neurodivergent people to be more independent.
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Many of the rules that protect disability rights, “including rules about making the digital world accessible,” would be at risk according to the Law Office of Lainey Feingold, a disability rights lawyer and author.
​Project 2025 also wants to eliminate the Education Department which would remove the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. That would remove protections for neurodivergent public-school students!
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The Heritage Foundation also wants to strip away women's rights, librarian rights, gay and trans rights, and rights of people of color.
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Much to the Trump campaign’s chagrin, someone leaked Project 2025 training videos in which, among many other groups that are targeted, gender fluidity is described as evil. The architects of the plan want to remove the rights of people to express who they are unless they fall on the "right" end of the spectrum.
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They also propose completely removing the rights for neurodivergent people. That would immediately put us in danger.
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Donald Trump’s nephew, Fred C. Trump III, wrote a book, All in The Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way. Fred, who is a neurodivergent rights advocate, met with Trump and other disabilities rights advocates in the Oval Office during Trump’s presidency. After the meeting Trump said to Fred privately, “Those people, all those expenses, they should just die.”
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Fred’s son has severe disabilities, and Donald Trump has never even met his own great nephew. Fred is no longer in contact with his misguided uncle.
Learning of this was a huge wake-up call for me. In Trump's “perfect” world, he wants me and the friends that I have in my social group and at school, dead.
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Now there is hope in Kamala Harris. When she becomes President, she will protect the rights of all minorities in this country, including the rights of my friends and me.
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That gives me hope. Our rights are on the ballot. I hope that you choose the right way and protect ALL rights so we all can continue to be productive members of this country.