Imagine if someone said "it's not that I hate disabled people it's just that I don't think they should be allowed in most places!"

This happens with most adults, but it’s PARTICULARLY annoying with otherkins.

There is this sense that somebody is completely unaware of, and blind to their identity until they are 18. Once you’re a legal adult, you are granted the ultimate knowledge of your identity and alterhumanity. But until your 18th birthday, you couldn’t possibly know what you’re talking about.

I cannot count the amount of times I’ve been told “your too young to be a zooanthrope” or that my delusions (which have been recorded by my healthcare professionals as psychotic symptoms) are simply an over active imagination.

Perfect strangers on the internet who took one look at my blog and decided to write me off because I’m 17.

Hell, I’ve even gotten this from other older zooanthropes saying that I’m “too young to know” or that “my delusions wouldn’t start that young” and I must be faking it all for internet clout.

It insinuates two things:

it is a bad thing to be a small child.

it is a bad thing to do the things that small children do, the things that are human nature; to feel your feelings, to attempt to communicate your feelings and needs and boundaries with others, to learn, to be curious, to ask questions, to trust, to rely on others, to show affection, to be truly honest, to be vulnerable.

I am very concerned about the new proposed work requirements for Medicaid, especially with how it defines community engagement. Under these requirements, older adults would almost certainly have to have the equivalent of a full time job or full time volunteering position to receive benefits. This is unsustainable for many adults of this age. Many are disabled, or are caregivers for other people in their families. Most, including so many I know, engage with their communities in a multitude of ways that support and strengthen others' lives, even if such labor is not officially recognized. To enact these requirements would not only be denying that their contributions are valuable, but would be denying that their very lives are valuable, because in the landscape of American healthcare, access to Medicaid can be the defining factor in a person's survival. Our elders are more than their participation in a 40-hour workweek. They deserve life, care, health, love, and appreciation for the gifts they have spent their whole lives giving to us.

To put these requirements into practice would be violence toward the people we should, as a society, most want to protect.

Thank you for your consideration.

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And read about the new reqs here -