{"id":10104,"date":"2023-04-28T00:39:07","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T04:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tempestmag.org\/v01_2020\/staging\/?p=10104"},"modified":"2023-04-30T22:18:03","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T02:18:03","slug":"get-off-twitter-and-get-into-the-online-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2023\/04\/get-off-twitter-and-get-into-the-online-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"Get off Twitter and get into the (online) streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CARES Act<\/a> passed in March 2020, and pandemic measures marked an unprecedented expansion of the social safety net in the U.S.\u2014improving access to health care, food assistance, unemployment benefits, and housing stability. Those public services have expired one by one in the past months, and will end altogether on May 11 with President Biden\u2019s decision to end the Public Health Emergency, as he declares the COVID-19 pandemic \u201cover,\u201d despite the ongoing realities of 200 deaths a day from COVID, the more than 36 million impacted by Long COVID in the U.S., and the continued isolation of those who recognize that everyone is vulnerable to COVID\u2019s harms. As people are encouraged to accept high transmission levels as the \u201cnew normal,\u201d public space is being made increasingly unsafe, especially for elderly, immunocompromised, and disabled people, and others who wish to avoid COVID infection. And while protestors voice their opposition on Public Health Twitter, this energy has yet to crystalize into a significant defense of the hard-won social safety net. But it still can.<\/p>\n

During the Trump administration, the disability rights movement was instrumental in winning and then saving the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare or the ACA. The disability rights movement won us disability protections and a floor for access needs guarantees in the form of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and later, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We argue that we can\u2014and must\u2014win continued public health measures to make public space accessible to people most impacted by, and vulnerable to, the pandemic. To do so, public health and disability justice organizers must take our work off Twitter and win back public space.<\/p>\n

Getting into \u201cthe streets\u201d for our collective health<\/h4>\n

Disability Rights have been won through collective action. In 1977, disabled people, including members of the Black Panther Party, participated in a nationwide protest, with the most notable event being the occupation of the Federal Building in San Francisco. This protest was the longest occupation of a U.S. public building and demanded enforceable regulations around Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which governs disability discrimination and access. This includes “reasonable accommodations” for employment, education, housing, and other public services. The 504 sit-in was built on years of demonstrations, sit-ins, and coalition-building. The disability rights movement continued to gain momentum, leading to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. The ADA is separate legislation from Section 504 but was influenced by earlier activism, including dramatic direct actions such as the “Capitol Crawl,” which saw disabled people crawling up the 100 steps of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., demanding the passage of the ADA.<\/p>\n

Most recently, in the summer of 2017, when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, disability justice and HIV activists saved the Affordable Care Act, forcing the GOP to reject their own proposals to gut the (however inadequate) health care program. Activists won<\/a> through expertly coordinated and grassroots-funded lobbying efforts backed by robust public activation to make phone calls, write letters, and sign and deliver petitions. Creative and well-attended in-person actions earned robust press attention, and Republicans were put in front of cameras and forced to expose the reality of their policy proposals: Very rich people would make more money while millions of people would lose access to health care. Ultimately, the legislative efforts to \u201crepeal and replace\u201d the Affordable Care Act with something much worse failed. While the fight for good universal healthcare for all has not yet crystallized into a full victory, it\u2019s constructive to highlight the ways the ACA was won, and defended.<\/p>\n