My Commitment to Activism

I was born with my fist in the air. While in retrospect this was likely foreshadowing my hypermobility condition, I like to think it was my feisty spirit and commitment to agitating for change.

Being a proud older sibling to my disabled foster sister and adopted younger brothers, Zac and Jacob, disability rights were important to me early on. As a fat, queer, gender non-conforming, Jewish kid I experienced bullying and understood the hurt of being “othered” from a young age. I became increasingly politicized as I found queer community in my early teens, which catalyzed my commitment to queer, trans, anti-racism/white supremacy, and economic justice activism.

I also regularly experienced periods of “unexplained“ pain and illness that severely escalated in my late teens and early twenties. By the age of 24 I was legally “permanently disabled” and reliant on public assistance. I felt destroyed. But the more I confronted my deep shame, ableism, and internalized stigma, the more I recognized how chronic pain and illness prejudices are inextricably intertwined with the systems of oppression I am determined to help abolish. 

This is how my Pain Activism & Education mission to UNSHAME PAIN was born. Since 2015 I have been writing, teaching, and making media about pain as an intersectional social justice issue.