Inclusion -Agency -Intersectionality
Where Do We Go From Here?
The Care referendum, which was ultimately defeated by the Irish voting population earlier this year, caused much hurt for disabled folk, who felt overlooked and excluded by many community organisations and activists. In the aftermath, Alannah Murray discusses the damage done, as well as how best to move forward. All portraits by Steven Peice.
So now that the dust has settled and the immediate hurt of the referendum has died down, I’m ready to talk about repairing bridges and starting conversations on how both my disabled identity and my queer identity co-exist.
For full transparency, I campaigned for a Yes No vote. My background is in the legal field, but readers of the magazine will know that I regularly advocate for disabled queer people. We can be both — and often are.
The reason for my No in the Care referendum has been splashed across social media, so I don’t feel the need to rehash the whole thing again. In summary, it’s that disabled people weren’t encouraged to live autonomous lives and it reduced them to objects of care.
I thought once momentum gained and more disabled people spoke out that the organisations, particularly queer ones, would get behind us. Surely they would recognise the idea of being misaligned by society, not given the rights to live life as they deserved, and they would stand shoulder to shoulder with us in solidarity.