#Advocacy Groups

[racialdiscriminationday]

Recognize that eradicating racial discrimination requires sustained effort and collaboration across diverse sectors.

Through dialogue and education, we can dismantle the harmful stereotypes and misconceptions that fuel bigotry and hatred. By fostering inclusivity and empathy, we can create environments where all individuals feel valued, respected, and empowered. As advocates for social change, Unifor is committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in all facets of society.

We recognize that eradicating racial discrimination requires sustained effort and collaboration across diverse sectors. By forging partnerships with community organizations, advocacy groups, and policymakers, we can effect meaningful change and build a more just and equitable society for all. We encourage members to participate in events in their communities and seek out opportunities to advance their understanding of racism and its impacts.

Together, we stand in solidarity with all workers and communities in the pursuit of a world free from racial discrimination.

#bigotry and hatred #stereotypes and misconceptions #inclusivity and empathy #community organizations #advocacy groups #policymakers #international day for the elimination of racial discrimination

[uncanny-tranny]

If your politics stem from, "in a perfect world, disabled people wouldn't have to exist to suffer their disability!" you are just a eugenicist.

So often, people seem to forget that eugenics isn't "being mean," so when eugenics are framed as kindness, compassion, empathy, and as a service done unto the people they are helping (see: eradicating), it isn't seen as eugenics - it's seen as a kindness. In what way would disabled people "not exist" in society if it were "made perfect"? In what way would we be deemed not to be "suffering a life of disability," and how is it measured?

The "kind" eugenicist is still operating with the same tools that the "dyed-in-the-wool" eugenicist uses. The kind eugenicist relies on people taking what they say in good faith, that they actually want to help the people they seek to eliminate.

#disability #disability advocacy #eugenics #eugenics tw #ableism #ableism tw #this is the same eugenicist mindset cis people use when they say... #...'in a perfect world transness wouldn't exist 😇 (because there wouldn't be trans people TO exist)' #because it isn't ABOUT kindness or 'serving' the marginalized group in some way. it's about eradicating the group in any way possible

[chthonic-cassandra]

Affinity group/shared identity group stuff never ever ever feels good to me, and ever time I hope lightly that it might be different, but I think I just have to accept that it's fundamentally not a model that is ever going to work for me.

#this is true no matter what identity the groups are based around #personal #advocacy #(adjacently)

[trans-axolotl]

so fucking frustrated with the US intersex advocacy community right except for like. five people (you know who u r and ily) like. cannot fucking believe some of the shit i'm seeing people say and the absolute like. disregard for what it means to say we are fighting for liberation. im going to lose my fucking mind i don't even want to participate in the intersex awareness day shit i had planned because what the fuck is the point

#personal #vent #actuallyintersex #the 'abolitionist' intersex advocacy group i was in #well. they use this language and then don't bother to consider what it means to have those politics in practice #literally at the point where i think i just want to fuck off from all US intersex advocacy and then just pivot #to what we were talking abotu early this summer. intersex sex work organizing #bc my intersex sex worker friends are ones who i can ACTUALLY trust

[bookofmac]

Modern AU Goth Harrow this, Modern AU Catholic Harrow that. Where is Modern AU Harrow as a Member of the Order of Perpetual Indulgence?????

#Locked tomb #the locked tomb #of course in this hypothetical AU Gideon is a member of Dykes on Bikes #harrowhark nonagesimus #for those who don't know the order is an on going advocacy and charity group that involves a lot of work in queer community #mostly in drag Queens nuns but there are drag king Brothers and I think Harrow would be drawn to that in a modern AU #harrow nonagesimus

[william-s-churros]

what is not dividing the working class along racial lines, according to tumblr: white people being incredibly disrespectful of black people and their boundaries all the time, every day, feeling entitled to use the activism of black people to further their own goals (while, again, disrespecting this activism and black people in general all the time) constantly acting like its black peoples fault whenever anything bad happens, treating them like neonazis for asserting incredibly reasonable boundaries, large swathes of "progressive" white people declaring that black people make up accusations of racism for no reason all the time

what is dividing the working class along racial lines, according to tumblr: being politely reminded of black peoples boundaries while they politely ask us to not use certain activist phrases that typically relate to violence that white people dont experience due to our privilege

#straight up waiting for people to be like 'its divisive of you to not let me use the n-word' #stop talking matt #racism #im so sick of this shit ngl #people are allowed to have boundaries and disrespecting those boundaries does far more to harm any working class solidarity than the #boundaries do in the first place #legit reactionary politics regarding race on this website because all the progress black people have made in terms of social justice is #being treated like its ~gone too far~ and that black people need to be ~put back in their place~ ie in the background of revolutionary #politics when its this development of identity group advocacy by black people that like all other modern identity group advocacy spawned #from. its so fucking annoying and gross

[gynecologistmsfrizzle]

“what to tell a doctor to get an autism diagnosis” “here’s what i learned from realizing i was autistic at 40″ “i would never want a professional diagnosis” “person first language is so regressive” “autism symptoms are only a problem because of ableism” “we dont need treatment” “no autistic person wants a cure” “four doctors told me i couldn’t be autistic so i found a fifth” “autism is an invisible disability” “dont disclose your neurodivergency to employers” “i/dd and autism have nothing to do with each other” “nt parents/advocates have no place in autism communities” “of course im autistic have you heard me talk about horror movies” babe i have nothing in common with any of you

#completely insane that i will go on autism twitter and somehow i am ''low functioning'' compared to the rest of the people on there. #what are you TALKING about. dont disclose your ''neurodivergency'' to your doctors?? autism is an invisible disability? #we live on different planets. like i think we live on different planets. #sorry but i am twenty two years old and my mother has a fippa exemption to access all my medical info bc if she did not #i would not be able to access healthcare. #the only reason i can live away from home is because i have a cell phone and internet and can keep in touch w family. #my legal government address is my father's house where i have not lived for seven years #because if an important document gets sent to my apartment i will lose it or forget about it and i know this because it's happened. #like ... yeah ! autism IS a spectrum ! and you are not doing such a good job recognizing and supporting people who are #in very different places on that spectrum than you ! #it is. i mean it's kind of a form of hermeneutical injustice to argue that there is no meaningful difference between various groups #of autistic people #like yeah functioning labels suck ASS. also you DO need to be able to identify that there ARE people who need more support #because if you can't name that then you are going to forget that they exist #and i see that all the time. it's aspie supremacy by another name #by erasing people who did not have the privilege of self-diagnosing #who do not have the privilege not to disclose #who do not have the privilege of independent self-advocacy #you are going to end up achieving the same thing that actively dismissing those people achieves #like. i dunno. like i said it's completely bonkers in yonkers that EYE and the UNIVERSITY DEGREE EYE WILL BE GETTING IN TWO MONTHS #and my LEASE and my RESPECTABLE RESUME and my INCOMING SOCIAL WORK LICENSE #feel alienated by the default presumptions the ''autistic community'' seems to operate from about how autistic people function #like jfc if i feel erased and unwelcome then how are you EVER going to make your community accessible and helpful #to people who need miles more support than i do?? #rhi talks #autie tag

[violeteyedkiller]

out of the blue PSA

PLEASE FINISH YOUR ANTIBIOTICS REGIMEN EVEN IF YOU FEEL BETTER. HELP STOP ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANT BACTERIA.

#out of screams #It's been a while since I got on this soap box #But I was in an Advocacy group in college and the probably hasn't been getting any better

[fresh-bag-of-ham]

Wait sorry could you elaborate a little about that housing post? My experience (heavily influenced by college towns to be clear) has been that landlord corporations will buy up single family homes quickly for cash, which means that 1) there is a shortage of housing for people who want to purchase homes rather than rent, 2) the landlord companies are extremely predatory and rent to students charging them each $$$$ to live there no matter how many people are living in the house, and 3) building new housing, including multifamily apartments, does nothing to fix this because it's built by developer corporations that set ridiculously high rents and don't care if many of the units are unoccupied. I can see how the proposed legislation would do nothing but shift who's getting screwed over, but I don't see how "build more housing" on its own actually fixes the root issue if the new housing is just as expensive + it's still the predatory landlord companies owning everything. But I also don't know very much about this outside of my general observations.

Yes, I can elaborate!

There's a shortage of housing for everyone in the US, period, which is making the housing that does exist more valuable, period. This makes owning a rental property a great investment (super low vacancy rate!), and it also makes buying a condo purely as somewhere to stash your money for a while a great investment (price almost guaranteed to be higher when you sell it later!). All this competition does make it harder for people who want to buy a home just to live in themselves, but the investors they're competing against are reacting ""rationally"" to a general scarcity that already exists.

College towns, because of the relatively fixed base demand of students needing places to live close to campus, are unfortunately really prone to predatory landlords -- I mean, I was in college 2006-2010 when the housing bubble burst and there was basically no effect on student rent prices. All 25,000 of us students were still all competing for the same scrubby rental houses.

[much elaboration below the cut...]

What does affect the student housing prices is changing land use code to allow mid-rise apartment buildings. The new housing was expensive, top of the market, sure, but buildings are crazy expensive to build right now, and the building is also pretty nice. So suddenly the wealthiest 1,000 students are living in the brand new 20-story building with the in-house pool and gym, and now there's only 24,000 students chasing the same scrubby rental houses. The effect on prices is far from immediate, but after a few mid-rise apartment buildings go up, after you get maybe 5,000 new units to the market, people have more options and the natural vacancy rate starts creeping up? The owners of the scrubbiest rental houses start to worry. With so many other options for renters, do they have to lower rents to compete? Fix up their units? Or do they have to sell off a couple properties, maybe the ones furthest from campus? Or do they have to get out of the business altogether?

This is overly simplified of course, and, depending on other factors, increasing housing supply might only result in less upward pressure on rent prices, but you can actually see all the 'how to get rich without working' passive income bros start to freak out in real time on twitter when a town where they own a small rental empire starts upzoning and issuing building permits, because what they're exploiting to make money is housing scarcity.

There are a couple of general ideas around this floating around in various states of exaggeration that are misrepresentations or distortions of reality. To address a couple...

This video addresses the idea that inspired the proposed legislation from a few days ago, the idea that the housing shortage is being caused by Wall Street investors buying up single-family homes.

This article is really important in addressing something you mentioned, the idea that landlords "don't care if many of the units are unoccupied". The number of unoccupied units, otherwise known as the vacancy rate (and its inverse, the occupancy rate), is something landlords care a lot about.

This in-depth report describes a relatively new company that offers landlords not just software, but access to a dataset of all rental rates in their area. Not just asking rents for available listed units, but all rents being charged for every unit. Using this dataset, the software recommends that landlords set their rents some amount higher and accept a (slightly) lower occupancy rate.

The company had been seeking occupancy levels of 97% or 98% in markets where it was a leader, Winn said. But when it began using YieldStar, managers saw that raising rents and leaving some apartments vacant made more money. “Initially, it was very hard for executives to accept that they could operate at 94% or 96% and achieve a higher NOI by increasing rents,” Winn said on the call, referring to net operating income. The company “began utilizing RealPage to operate at 95%, while seeing revenue increases of 3% to 4%.”

I feel like people are imagining a building with maybe 20% vacancy? Maybe 30% vacancy if you were imagining a particularly greedy landlord?? But this article describes a shift from 2-3% vacancy (basically enough to allow a short turnover period between tenants) to 5% vacancy. And even that, the landlords could hardly stomach at first! Because vacant units feels like leaving money on the table, it goes against all their business sense.

But a shift from 2-3% to 5% vacancy still takes some units off the market, right? Well, yes, but a) I wouldn't call that "many", and b) in the grand scheme of things it means waiting a couple more months between tenancies. That's certainly not good, but the far more devastating effect of this scheme is that a small increase in the vacancy rate is no longer a downward force on rent prices.

So let's say they've been operating at 98% occupancy, charging $1000/mo rent. To take in 4% more revenue at 95% occupancy, that's basically a 7% increase in rent, $1073/mo. At that price, for revenue to fall back to what they'd been making before at 98% occupancy (which presumably was enough to cover operating expenses), the occupancy would have to drop to 91%.

So where this company would previously only tolerate maybe a 3% vacancy before dropping rents to fill their available units, this company now would tolerate a 9% vacancy rate in theory. Because of the demand for housing being what it is they're operating at 5% vacancy and just raking in profits like they describe.

On the one hand, this is definitely a huge problem. This company's software has become incredibly prevalent among landlords across the country, and the DOJ is currently investigating this company for antitrust violations because of the data sharing and price-setting that this company/algorithm has enabled. So that's encouraging!

On the other hand, this whole scheme wouldn't even be possible if we didn't have a housing shortage to begin with. In a housing surplus, the first building to fall below their vacancy threshold would have to start lowering rents and leasing more units to cover the difference, those additional units on the market would start to increase vacancy rates in other buildings and they'd do the same thing, and the whole house of cards would collapse.

tl;dr: Yes, the new housing itself (without subsidies from every level of government to build an affordable housing development) will likely be top of the market (after all, it's brand new) but housing scarcity generally allows everybody to jack up rents and behave predatorily, even the landlords of the oldest and shittiest rentals, and the only counter against that that doesn't leave somebody out in the cold is to increase housing supply.

#i hope this helps explain #i'm not in the industry but i'm involved in a local pro-housing advocacy 'yimby' group so i read about this quite a bit #housing

[devouringyourson]

bless my therapist trying to suggest i join some 'gay groups' if I wanna meet people like his other client who joined a gay running club... had to be like yeah i go clubbing at queer venues and blog on the internet but im not really the queer knitting group type

#yeah i could join some queer advocacy groups or i could slit my own throat you know #id do a queer film club maybe a queer women thing idk charity sure

[uncanny-tranny]

About that thing re "trans men dont know what its like to be seen as predatory", I feel like everyone in the lgbt community generally agrees lesbians are treated as predatory by str8 women, gay men are treated as predatory by str8 men, I (as a trans man) used to think I was a lesbian and went throught life as one. Accordingly I was treated like I am predatory. I am now a gay men, and accordingly I am treated as predatory. On top of that, cis gay men treat me as predatory (scawy transes trying to get them to have sex w a vageenay boohoo) and women treat me as predatory every time I open my mouth about sharing some of their experiences (because me needing iuds at the obgyn inherently means I, as a man, inavde their man-free space). Literally all queer people are constantly treated as predatory by cishet society at large, everyone knows it and keeps saying it and is talking about it because its no secret and everyone is aware of it.

But the second the convo turns to how terfs hurt trans men? Suddenly, we have no idea what its like to be treated as predatory and suddenly the world sees trans men specifcially as helpless little girly victims.

And honestly? Even if it were the case that trans men and transmasculine* people were solely infantilized... it's still harmful. I was initially bringing up that because it's like... I guess the only narrative people want to hear about our suffering, I guess, because it's easier to digest. It's easier to look at it and write it off as, "well you're just infantilized, show me a real problem," and that's the issue - it's twofold. It is simultaneously the need to relegate the experiences of a diverse community into one box and then say, "well, it's just infantilization, who cares when [x] issue is more dangerous" afterward.

It is frustrating, at best, to not be heard. And I've found that so many people aren't just infantilized... I think a lot of queer people are, I don't think it's unique to us. However, people are almost surprised when trans men and transmasculine* people open up more, in my experience.

It's definitely more complex to include more trans experiences with transphobia and the intersections of things like rascism, homophobia, antisemitism, islamophobia, misogyny, ableism... but it is still important. In fact, it often informs in addition to how trans people are treated. Transphobia doesn't exist in a vacuum, and it often doesn't exist alone. That is why we need to have these complex discussions.

#ask #anon #trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtq #ftm #nonbinary #transphobia #transphobia tw #it's really tilting to see people almost deny that trans men and otherwise trans people can be seen as predatory #because (at least in my experience) that has all i have ever been seen as *because* i am trans. and for different reasons as well #this is the same experience i've had mental illness 'advocacy' groups #the ones who subconsciously think 'well i' depressed. my gran's depressed. my boss is depressed. we all work FINE' #'so because we all work fine then why are *you* such a train wreck. why don't you brush your hair. clean your room and it'll all be fine!' #the words aren't the same. but the denial of different experiences - of different realities are the same. #which is why you can not advocate for trans liberation while simultaneously rejecting the different experiences of trans people #if you can not compute that two trans people of the same identity can have different experiences of transphobia AND... #...that BOTH experiences are important to address without denying the other or ignoring it... trans liberation will be flimsy at best #because then it only takes one different experience and what recourse does that trans person have? #this rant goes for ALL trans people by the way. if you can not accept that trans people can have different valid needs... #...then i personally think that those ideas of trans liberation you may have are flimsy #again impersonal you is used

[chthonic-cassandra]

There are a lot of things that went well in this training I just finished running, but I am also holding a deeply simmering rage towards the participants not actually doing the work who came in late and proceeded to shame the other participants, service providers on the edge of burnout who are trying to do very difficult work to help people very much in need of it, for being insufficiently radical.

#“well i wouldn't be able to sleep at night if i didn't...” #good for you. i am trying to help all the rest of this people in the room keep giving [needed to service] to [group of people] #and also i myself haven't been able to sleep because i have really fucking severe ptsd that i am ignoring to do this for all of you #so i wish you would kindly shut the fuck up #i mean. i did not say that #i was an excellent facilitator and i reframed and redirected everything as productively as possible #but i am so so angry #advocacy #personal

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a measure that will overhaul the state’s alimony laws, after three vetoes of similar bills and a decade of emotional clashes over the issue.

The measure (SB 1416) includes doing away with what is known as permanent alimony. DeSantis’ approval came a year after he nixed a similar bill that sought to eliminate permanent alimony and set up a formula for alimony amounts based on the length of marriage.

The approval drew an outcry from members of the “First Wives Advocacy Group,” a coalition of mostly older women who receive permanent alimony and who assert that their lives will be upended without the payments.

“On behalf of the thousands of women who our group represents, we are very disappointed in the Governor’s decision to sign the alimony-reform bill. We believe by signing it, he has put older women in a situation which will cause financial devastation. The so-called party of ‘family values’ has just contributed to erosion of the institution of marriage in Florida,” Jan Killilea, a 63-year-old Boca Raton woman who founded the group a decade ago, told The News Service of Florida in a text message Friday.

The years-long effort to do away with permanent alimony has been a highly contentious issue. It elicited tearful testimony from members of the First Wives group. But it also spurred impassioned pleas from ex-spouses who said they had been forced to work long past the age they wanted to retire because they were on the hook for alimony payments.

Michael Buhler, chairman of Florida Family Fairness, a group that has pushed for doing away with permanent alimony, praised the approval of the bill.

“Florida Family Fairness is pleased that the Florida Legislature and Gov. DeSantis have passed a bill that ends permanent alimony and codifies in statute the right to retire for existing alimony payers,” Buhler said in a statement “Anything that adds clarity and ends permanent alimony is a win for Florida families.”

Along with DeSantis’ veto of the 2022 version, former Gov. Rick Scott twice vetoed similar bills. The issue spurred a near-fracas outside Scott’s office in 2016.

This year, however, the proposal received relatively little public pushback and got the blessing of Florida Family Fairness and The Florida Bar’s Family Law Section, which fiercely clashed over the issue in the past.

Along with eliminating permanent alimony, the measure will set up a process for ex-spouses who make alimony payments to seek modifications to alimony agreements when they want to retire.

It will allow judges to reduce or terminate alimony, support or maintenance payments after considering a number of factors, such as “the age and health” of the person who makes payments; the customary retirement age of that person’s occupation; “the economic impact” a reduction in alimony would have on the recipient of the payments; and the “motivation for retirement and likelihood of returning to work” for the person making the payments.

Supporters said it will codify into law a court decision in a 1992 divorce case that judges use as a guidepost when making decisions about retirement.

But, as with previous versions, opponents remained concerned that the bill would apply to existing permanent alimony agreements, which many ex-spouses accept in exchange for giving up other assets as part of divorce settlements.

“He (DeSantis) has just impoverished all the older women of Florida, and I know at least 3,000 women across the state of Florida are switching to Democrat and we will campaign against him, all the way, forever,” Camille Fiveash, a Milton Republican who receives permanent alimony, said in a phone interview Friday.

In vetoing the 2022 version, DeSantis pointed to concerns about the bill allowing ex-spouses to have existing alimony agreements amended. In a June 24, 2022, veto letter, he wrote that if the bill “were to become law and be given retroactive effect as the Legislature intends, it would unconstitutionally impair vested rights under certain pre-existing marital settlement agreements.”

But Senate bill sponsor Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, tried to assure lawmakers that the 2023 version would not unconstitutionally affect existing alimony settlements. This year’s proposal “went to what is currently case law,” Gruters told a Senate committee in April, pointing to the court ruling.

“So what you can do right now, under case law, we now codify all those laws and make that the rule of law. So we basically just solidify that. So from a retroactivity standpoint, no, because if anything could be modifiable before, it’s still modifiable. If it’s a non-modifiable agreement, you still can’t modify that agreement,” he said.

The bill, which will take effect Saturday, also will set a five-year limit on what is known as rehabilitative alimony. Under the plan, people married for less than three years will not be eligible for alimony payments, and those who have been married 20 years or longer will be eligible to receive payments for up to 75% of the term of the marriage.

The new law will also allow alimony payers to seek modifications if “a supportive relationship exists or has existed” involving their ex-spouses in the previous year. Critics argued the provision is vague and could apply to temporary roommates who help alimony recipients cover living expenses for short periods of time.

Fiveash, a 63-year-old with serious medical conditions, said she can’t afford another legal fight over alimony.

“My fears are that they can take you back to court, and I don’t have the money for an attorney. I literally live off a little bit I get for alimony. I work part-time, because I have all kinds of ailments. And now I’m going to be left without anything, absolutely anything,” she said.

Health insurance, Fiveash added, will “probably be the first thing to go” if her payments are reduced or eliminated.

“This is a death sentence for me,” she said.

#us politics #news #republicans #conservatives #2023 #alimony #permanent alimony #gov. ron desantis #nbc 6 south florida #SB 1416 #First Wives Advocacy Group #The News Service of Florida #divorce laws #Florida Family Fairness #Rick Scott #family law #Florida bar #Joe Gruters

[spacephobos]

tua having a nonverbal autistic character is so cool their next step in autistic rights and representation should be publicly sacrificing tom hopper

#i love harlan so much actually #the umbrella academy #harlan #btw if you didnt know tom put his autistic child in aba which is an abusive practice that traumatises and hurts autistic people #its often compared to conversion therapy because it is pretty much the same science behind it #autistic advocacy groups protest very heavily against it #hes also said bullshit about autism being caused by diets #i despise that man #sorry for getting serious in the tags of a jokey post #but everytime i wanna bring this up i always realise people just dont k ow about it #tua