For most of my twenties, I fell into a lie. Most people, I am told, who find themselves ‘othered’ in our society find themselves tied up in this lie in one way or another. It keeps extraordinary people tied into fear, and promises an escape by pointing to a jail cell.
The lie? That Equality can be earned and it’s up to you to work for it.
In my life, I did everything possible to minimize both my disability and femininity, going so far as refusing to buy clothes I liked because outfits were too girlie, or even applying to drama schools I knew were not accessible.
I thought if I somehow worked hard enough or played my cards right, people would get over the difference that held me back. If I did things right, I could earn equal opportunity.
By definition, equal opportunity cannot be earned. What is open to one section of the population as a seeming birth right must therefore be open to all, otherwise this is discrimination.
Read that again.
Very often it can seem as if it is up to those who need a service to justify having that service. Equal rights do not and should never need to be justified otherwise they are not, by definition rights.
Human rights cannot be earned.
Equal opportunity cannot be dependent on anything I do.
When I was five years old, I attended a mainstream school which had no lift. To have a right of access meant that the school needed to be accessible to all students regardless of if they were able bodied or not. It meant that regardless of my academic performance, that school should have had a lift.
When they failed to provide a lift, I was sent to a special school even though I had no learning needs.
For years I thought if I had done better in school [which was impossible, I was pretty much at the top of my class], they would have built a lift.
The second we believe we can earn our rights, we’ve lost. You cannot ‘earn equality’ from a system that does not want you to have it.
The next time someone tries to take away that which should be yours stand firm. It is never up to you to prove why you are entitled to something, nor is it your job to come up with a solution for someone who hasn’t ensured equality.
Equality should never be earned, but it should be given.
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