5/27/25 - Medicaid in the Senate, COVID vaccine changes, and two perspectives on restrooms

Hello!

Memorial Day here in the US snuck up on me this year. So rather than sharing just the usual assortment of links, I took the holiday off. Next year I'd like to have some Memorial Day links to send about disabled people in the military, soldiers disabled in combat, and civilians disabled in war. Disability, military service, and the effect of war is definitely one of the areas of disability thinking and discussion that I have tended to neglect.

For now, here are your three disability links for Tuesday ...

New Resources and Tools to Fight for Medicaid

Jess Davidson, American Association of People with Disabilities - May 25, 2025

"AAPD wanted to ensure that you have all the information you need to understand the news about this bill and participate in community advocacy to fight against it. Our team has put together some tools and resources to keep you informed and get you involved."

Now is a good time to dig into exactly what is happening with the "Big Beautiful Bill" in Congress, including provisions that would effectively slash hundreds of billions of dollars and throw over 13 million Americans off Medicaid. These "explainers" help make both the legislative process and the bill itself much more clear and specific than broad statements and slogans alone. If you want to know more about it all, this is a good place to start.

FDA to Cut Covid Booster Access, Excluding In-Home Carers

Julia Métraux, Mother Jones - May 20, 2025

"Beth Connor, who lives in North Carolina—which also enacted a mask ban in 2024—is the mother of a six-year-old with a chronic lung disease who has had a tracheostomy. Her son requires round-the-clock care, which is provided by her, her husband, and a nurse; they would not be eligible for vaccines under the FDA’s new policy."

I will probably qualify under the new rules. But the fact that I have to say "probably" scares and angers me. I'm all for studying the effectiveness of COVID vaccines more deeply. But in the meantime, why can't people continue to have choice to use them, as they have already been using them for the last three years?

Disabled campaigners watching ‘in horror’ as trans people face toilet segregation

Libby Brooks and Frances Ryan, The Guardian - May 24, 2025

"With one in three LGBT+ people also disabled, 'there’s a really strong sense of allyship within the disabled community and longstanding mutual support between us and the LGBT+ community', says Hollywood. 'The vast majority of disabled people are so aware of what it feels like to be excluded from basic facilities. I need a hoist to get out of my wheelchair, so if there’s not a Changing Place where I’m visiting then I can’t go.'"

First of all, it's my understanding that the climate around trans issues in the UK is a bit different from what it's like in the US. That said, I hope that what this article asserts – that disability and trans communities are strong allies – is actually true in both the UK and the US. I worry that what may look like allyship is actually a case of disability activists who happen to oppose an anti-trans measure because it also happens to threaten some aspect of disability rights. Here in the US, this kind of thing has somewhat tainted the fight against a court case threatening Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act – in which both trans rights and disability rights are under attack. It has led to fears that some disabled people might be happy to sacrifice the trans issues if they could get guarantees on the disability stuff. In the UK, are disability activists truly outraged by the anti-trans court ruling on principle? Or, are they outraged because they don't want accessible restrooms overcrowded with trans people forced to use them by their own legally sanctioned segregation? Maybe it's a little of both? This confusion is all more than unfortunate. As the article describes, there should be at least some natural sharing of perspective between trans people and disabled people. Many trans people have disabilities. And beyond that, both groups know what it's like to have other people police our bodies and how we choose to handle them.

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