SOLIDARITY, NOT CHARITY ♿✊
The Fight Is Not Over
Disability Pride Month happens in July each year, in part, to mark when George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law in 1990. This year, the ADA turns 35 years old on July 26, which should be a momentous celebration (even if it continues to be an imperfect and often poorly-executed law).
It may surprise you to learn that the ADA is so young. In fact, I’m just two months older; I was born in May 1990. Disability Pride Month is even more youthful: The first official celebration was had in 2015 for the ADA’s 25th anniversary, though Disability Pride events were held several times leading up to this widespread culmination.
This year, Disability Pride Month is still a celebration—but it’s also an urgent call to action.
We are mourning the loss of Sins Invalid co-founder, executive and artistic director Patty Berne, who co-founded the disability justice movement and has made an immeasurable impact on the rights of disabled people in the U.S. We are still mourning the loss of Atinuke Abayomi Paul (Tinu), who passed in September 2024 after a lengthy battle with cancer, Long Covid, ME, and CFS.
And we are mourning the biggest wealth transfer in history with the passing of H.R. 1, which will see 17 million people lose their health insurance over the next decade (likely including me and several others in the Nonbinarian community). The bill not only makes massive cuts to Medicaid funding and SNAP (food assistance) benefits, but also goes after Medicare. These cuts will most directly affect disabled and poor people, particularly disabled and poor people of color, as well as the elderly. Nursing homes will be forced to close or cut staff. Emergency rooms, particularly in rural areas, will also be forced to close or cut staff. Those who aren’t impacted directly by losing their insurance will be hit with skyrocketing private insurance premiums and cost of care spikes regardless of their income or class status.
The U.S. has never cared about disabled people. The government’s “business as usual” and “return to normal” rhetoric during the ongoing COVID pandemic has made that clearer than ever, and mask bans and vaccine restrictions have made it increasingly dangerous for sick people to leave their homes. Public backlash against the mere concept of caring about other people has been swift, brutal, and unbending. Appeals for empathy go unheard as state-sanctioned violence against disabled and chronically ill people becomes the expectation, not even just the norm.
Disability is the largest minority group from which no one is exempt. Anyone can become disabled at any time. Injuries, accidents, infections, surgical complications, genetics, and more can lead to long-term or life-long disabilities and chronic illnesses. This should be enough to convince non-disabled people to not only be proactive about their own health, but to care for people around them whose health status may be good, bad, unknown, or somewhere else on the spectrum. But still, non-disabled people refuse to acknowledge their complacency in the deaths of thousands, if not millions, by refusing to show empathy. By refusing to take precautions. By refusing to listen to those of us with lived experience who most often feel like we are simply screaming into a void.
Although this Disability Pride Month has felt like a fight every minute of every hour of every day, perhaps even more than usual, we are not giving up. Disabled people, our allies, and our advocates are not going to stop fighting for our right to live.
Survival may seem impossible today and our care networks may feel burnt out, exhausted, and beat down. Take the time you need to mourn. To breathe. To find your center again. Stay connected to those vital people in your life in whatever way you can. Check in. Reach out. Hold each other. Weep.
And when you’re ready, keep going. Whatever the opinions of those who see us as expendable, we’re not standing down. We’re not stopping. And if you are new to disability justice and seeking resources to join the fight for our collective future, please visit the links below. Connect with your community. And most importantly, listen to disabled and chronically ill people.
In solidarity,
Samantha Puc (she/they)
Nonbinarian Book Club Coordinator & Newsletter Editor
Disability Justice Resources
Queer Disability Aid
We love our partnership with Queer Disability Aid to provide recurring Art as Therapy support groups in-store & we want to share all of the many incredible things they provide for the community!
Based in NYC & serving all 5 boroughs, Queer Disability Aid was started by Umi (they/them) in June 2024 to help queer disabled folks get the aid they deserve. Operating as a sliding scale initiative, if you can afford to pay, know that your money goes to bring services to those that need it the most. QDA will never turn someone away if you can't afford it.
Services offered include support groups, laundry, cleaning, haircuts, distributing supplies, calling doctors, pet sitting, rehoming mobility aids, meal prep, grocery shopping, workplace accommodations, filing for government assistance, delivering meds, & more! Use this form to request aid & use this form to volunteer.
🚲 🚲 🚲
Bookshop.org Nonbinarian Book List Recs
+ Partner Wishlists
When you choose The Nonbinarian Bookstore as your bookstore of choice on Bookshop.org and shop our booklists or any item on Bookshop.org, we receive a 30% affiliate fee from every sale! The affiliate fee directly supports us as a newly opened bookstore as well as sustaining our mutual aid initiative, The Nonbinarian Book Bike.
If you would like to purchase books to donate to The Nonbinarian, please shop below:
Nonbinarian General Inventory — We love it, you love it, help us restock some of our favorite books for adults.
Nonbinarian Kids Book Inventory — Board & picture books are always the first to go at outings—help keep us stocked!
Spanish-language Books — Help us increase our high demand Spanish-language offerings in-store & on the book bike.
If you would like to donate books to our partners, please shop their wishlists below:
Drag Story Hour x The Nonbinarian — Picture books from the DSH NYC book list!
Trans formative Schools x The Nonbinarian — Help stock the permanent classroom library for a trans-centered afterschool program!
The Reading for Black Lives Project x The Nonbinarian —Specifically Black + Queer, all books from this wishlist go towards our comrade in mutual aid distro R4BL.
Project Human Dignity x The Nonbinarian — We provide books to build a permanent library for an adolescent (9-17) in-patient psych ward—because everyone deserves to see themselves on the shelf.
Oklahoma Bar Project x The Nonbinarian — Help stock in-house libraries for 3 of the remaining lesbian bars in the states.
July’s programming is already under way, so here’s what’s happening this month. All times EST; 💻 = virtual, 🛍 = in-store, 🚲= book bike outing, 📍 = off-site meet-up.
Reminder: All in-store events at The Nonbinarian Bookstore are masks required! Testing is encouraged and we have free tests on-site, but negative tests will not be accepted in lieu of a well-fitted mask.
Please note: We were recently educated as to why we shouldn't use Partiful (thank you, Angry Asian Womxn!) & will be migrating RSVP platforms after these scheduled events.
🛍️ T4T Clothing Swap: Sunday, July 6, 1—4 p.m.
🛍️💻 Hybrid Reading Trancestors: A Trans History Book Club: Monday, July 7, 8—9:30 p.m. (after hours)
Register via Zoom or RSVP via Partiful for in-store attendance. Open only to TGNC attendees.
🛍️💻 Hybrid Bi-Weekly Radical Study Group: Thursday, July 10, 6—7:30 p.m., links tk
🛍️ Masc4mask C-19 Rapid PCR Testing Site: Saturday, July 12, 1—4 p.m., Test Signup
🛍️ Intimate Fragments: A Smutty Trans Open Mic: Thursday, July 17, doors 6:30 p.m., event 7—9 p.m. (after hours), RSVP via Partiful
🛍️ Masc4mask C-19 Rapid PCR Testing Site: Saturday, July 19, 1—4 p.m., Test Signup
🚲 Brower Park Book Bike Pop-Up: Saturday, July 19 2—4 p.m.
Free public book bike distro event! Find us by the main lawn & playground at Brower Park in Crown Heights.
🚲 HvK Park Book Bike Pop-Up: Sunday, July 20 2—4 p.m.
Free public book bike distro event! Find us by the main lawn & dog park at Herbert von King Park in Bed-Stuy.
🛍️ Queer Cookbook Club: Sunday, July 20, 4—6 p.m., RSVP via Partiful
🛍️ Nonbinarian RPG Worldbuilding Night: Wednesday, July 23, 7—9 p.m. (after hours), RSVP via Partiful
🛍️💻 Hybrid Bi-Weekly Radical Study Group: Thursday, July 24, 6—7:30 p.m., links tk
💻 The Nonbinarian Book Club: Friday, July 25, 8—9 p.m., Zoom
🛍️ Masc4mask C-19 Rapid PCR Testing Site: Saturday, July 26, 1—4 p.m., Test Signup
🚲 Grand Army Plaza Book Bike Pop-Up: Saturday, July 26 2—4 p.m.
Free public book bike distro event! Find us at the roundabout by the BPL Central branch in Prospect Heights!
🛍️ Queer Disability Aid Art as Therapy Support Group: Saturday, July 26, 7—9 p.m. (after hours), RSVP Link TK.
Materials provided!
🛍️ Little Readers ROAR! Storytime: Sunday, July 27, 12 p.m.—12:45 p.m.
No registration required; appropriate for ages 0-5; coloring materials provided!
🚲 Parkside Book Bike Pop-Up: Sunday, July 27 2—4 p.m.
Free public book bike distro event! Find us at the Prospect Park entrance across from the Parkside Q stop in Prospect Lefferts Gardens.
🛍️💻 Hybrid Reading Trancestors: A Trans History Book Club: Monday, July 28, 8—9:30 p.m. (after hours)
Register via Zoom or RSVP via Partiful for in-store attendance. Open only to TGNC attendees.
🛍️ COVID-Conscious Crafting: Wednesday, July 30, 7—9 p.m. (after hours), RSVP link TK
Materials provided!
Happy Disability Pride Month! This month, we are reading Crip Kinship: The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid by Shayda Kafai.*
Join us on Friday, July 25 at 8 p.m. ET on Zoom to meet other club members and chat about the book! The Zoom link will be sent out on the day of the meeting.
The Nonbinarian Book Club is a monthly, virtual, queer and trans-focused book club. Attendees will receive $5 off their next purchase at The Nonbinarian Bookstore, in-store or online. Meetings take place on the last Friday of each month and book club picks will be announced via the Nonbinarian Newsletter and social media on the 1st of each month.
Hosted monthly by Nonbinarians Philomena and Alexander, Reading Trancestors will meet monthly both in-store and virtually on Zoom. Each month we will collectively suggest and vote on our next book together.
In July, we’ll be reading Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman. (available in print and digital).*
Reading Trancestors is a free, monthly, hybrid reading and discussion group centering trans authors and readers, focused on learning from a past that insists on continually repeating itself. How did our trancestors survive the things we’re scared will happen again? Where did they find purpose in a world with no concept of their existence? What beautiful siblings are in the archive, siblings we may not even know existed?
Attendees (both virtual & in-person) will receive $5 off their next book club pick purchase at The Nonbinarian Bookstore.
Note: This book club centers the trans gaze and is open only to trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming attendees.
*If ever you cannot afford to obtain a copy of the book club pick for any of our meetings, please reach out to us via email. No judgment, no questions. We take care of us.
CBS producer Maggie Cole spotlighted The Nonbinarian Bookstore for Pride! Watch the video here or below on YouTube!
If you'd like to partner with us for an event or sponsorship, please reach out via e-mail! In addition to subscribing to our newsletter, following us on social media, visiting the store, and participating in events, you can also support the Nonbinarian in the following ways:
📚 Donate a book (or books)! See our used book policy for details.
📚 Donate funds to help upkeep costs rent and bike maintenance! You can make a one-time donation or set up a monthly one on Ko-Fi, or you can donate via Venmo.
📚 Buy a book from our wishlist!
📚 Buy a book through our Bookshop storefront!
📚 Support us with a Libro.fm subscription!
📚 Buy Nonbinarian merch!
To get involved in our virtual or in-person programming, please email info@thenonbinarian.gay!
Thank you to the Nonbinarian community for always showing up and showing out! We wouldn’t be here without our comrades, cheerleaders, volunteers, and backers! It has been a joy to meet you in-store and at pop-ups, interact with you on social media, and get to know the Brooklyn community and its various neighborhoods.
Want to contribute to the Nonbinarian Newsletter?
If you want to submit something to the newsletter, including events, mutual aid needs, book recs, or ideas you'd like to see us include, please email us at newsletter@thenonbinarian.gay.
Thank you for supporting the Nonbinarian Book Bike! Look for our next newsletter on the 1st of the month. In the meantime, follow us on social media for daily updates.