Hello from Cynthya BrianKate
&mbsp; ’ Hello everyone! I’m Cynthya BrianKate. I am so glad to find a list like this one!
&mbsp; ’  I’m omnisexual, femme tras/genderqueer-identified and hormonally intersex. As I’m sure not everybody will know what this means, here goes. Omnisexual as in I’m attracgted to all sorts of people regardless of gender; as for why I don’t say “bi,” because I’m not solely attracted to people who are 100% man or woman/male or female, especially as I’m hardly 100% either. Femme as in I’m pretty girly. Genderqueer as in even though I’m girly and trans, I’m not so much a MTF (Male-to-Female) as a WTF?)as in What The F**k?); wwhile I cosnider myself femme and have lived a large part of my lifer as a woman I'm not even sure what gender I'd exactly consider myself. Hormonally intersex as in I’ve had at least two puberties so far and among other things I grew breasts at age 21 without taking any outside hormones to get them.
&mbspI’m also visually disabled. I’ve had vision problems my whole life which have gotten somewhat worse over the years. I’ve been declared legally blind, am partially blind and partially sighted, which means there are things I can see, things I can’t see and a whole lot I don’t fricking notice because I don’t rely on my eyes like non-visually disabled people do. I’m able to type this out because I have a magnifier program for my computer (wish it was better but gets me by) and as for books I do a lot of audio and have finally managed to get hold of a CCTV unit as of this weekend.; ’ 
&mbsp; ’  As a queer disabled person I feel like I get it from both sides, though I do a *lot* better as a queer person with a disability than as a disabled person who’s queer. Generally queer spaces/people/groups I deal with/have dealt with at least try to get it. I always have to do at least 101 education on what disability stuff is and mine in particular, but the worst thing I can say about the queer community on thisn is that a lot of visibility and education needs to be done.
  ’  As for the disability community, I have yet to find it outside of a few people. I’ve two best friends who are trans and have disability issues, though theirs are different from mine (one’s got hearing issues while the other’s is somewhat complicated). As a student of Raven Kaldera’s I at least have a shaman who understands this (as he’s trans, intersex and has disability issues_ and there are some folks in our pagan group who fall under this, though they’re in Massachusetts and I live in New York). Other than that and a couple people I’ve met I don’t really feel I’ve had much community as a disabled person, let alone as a queer disabled person.
  ’  I’d say my experience with most disability groups and agencies has been … a crash course in ignorance and bigotry, less 101 than 666. At best I’ve encountered a general attitude of they don’t even understand what the heck gay is, let alone trans or intersex, and at best are surprised at the thought of a disabled person who’s anything in addition to being disabled (like we’re one dimensional stick people with no lives outside of what they see us as?) act like they never imagined a disabled person can be queer. I’ve had at least three agencies refuse to serve me at all, or severaly reduce services/interactions with me as a disabled person because of my gender. I’ve had at least one case worker (or was it two?) at one agency tell me not to “push your religion on me” before I even had a religion to push, apparently they saw my gender as a religion? When I lived in Michigan their Commission for the Blind’s caseworker said transphobic comments to my face in my own house. In New York I’m receiving services but haven’t found out whether it’s sate even bring up gender issues, let alone come out, which is ironic because I’m a nationally published gender educator who does classes on this every couple weeks. I have an open-minded caseworker from Helen Keller who’s teaching me cooking and she’s fine with me being a witch, though gender hasn’t come up yet.
  ’  I’ve attempted networking with groups here in NY and nobody I’ve asked seems to know of any. I joined BFLAG (the LGBT branch of American Council of the Blind_ but the current president isn’t allowing the group to meet. I’ve tried working with ACB itself and they never heard of gender or sexuality. I’ve tried the NY branch of ACB and learned that the NY president wasn’t interested in helping me with problems with myelection board, even though he’s a polli inspector, and I think he wouldn’t help me cause I’m trans, as I asked him about educating his group about gender and he said some pretty queerphobic things to me, in addition to claiming that disability has nothing to do with LGBT. And everyone I ask out here keeps telling me to worjk with this jerk?!?
  ’  I’m looking for better resources than I’ve been working with so far. I’d love to kln ow what I can do where I live. I’d love to know of any groups I should start networking with, on community, advocacy and activism. I’d love to know how to start being as active on disability as I’ve been on gender. I’m hoping to find community here and maybe even some ideas on resources. I’m looking to meet other queer disabled people and would especially love to meet anybody in NY. –thanks for listening, Cynthya BrianKate