I am SO angry and disgusted that I'll burst if I don't speak out about this, so hang on for the ride - it's going to get brutal!

What the actual HELL is wrong with some of you disability activists?

I'm referring to a small, but vocal minority of disabled folks who have the infernal GALL to assert that the right of trans people to use the bathroom that fits their gender identity is nothing in comparison to the right of people with disabilities to have wheelchair access to public restrooms. They say that since trans people make up less than .03 percent of the U.S. population and there are at least 54 million disabled folks here, trans people shouldn't matter.

Really? Are you kidding me?

For those who don't know, let me give a quick definition of the term, trans. Trans refers to people whose assigned gender at birth does not match the gender that they actually are. I am cis. That means that the gender that I was assigned at birth matches the gender that I actually am.

Some may wonder that if I am cis, why do I care about trans people and their rights? Because that's who I am! I care about and fight for the rights of all marginalized groups. I grew up with a trans sibling when I was in foster care. There are trans people whom I love and trans folks who are my friends and colleagues. I cannot sit by while trans people are dismissed, disrespected, discriminated against and murdered for who they are!

When I called out someone with a disability a couple of weeks ago for making the assertion that disability rights and wheelchair access to public loos are more important than the rights of trans people to pee where they feel safe, I thought that it was just an isolated case of one obtuse, ignorant person. I didn't expect to hear any more of this foolishness.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. Each day since then, I have heard and seen more and more hatred and vitrol spewed at the trans community by people with disabilities, especially since that horrible law passed in North Carolina that says people must use the restroom of the gender noted on one's birth certificate.

So, disabled folks and activists, what the hell is the problem? Why are members of our community, who ourselves experience hatred and discrimination, perpetrating that same thing on the trans community? Why are some of us playing the "our rights versus theirs", Oppression Olympics game? Are we that petty and jealous that trans people are, for now, in the spotlight over the bathroom issue?

Apparently, those of you hollering about trans people getting rights that disabled don't have don't get it that there are disabled trans folks. Hello, intersectionality is real, folks!

Look, we should be allies fighting for each other's right to pee and do our business with access and in safety. We have commonality in that we aren't always able to use the restroom where we want or need to. Sometimes, we can't get into public restrooms, but trans folks can be, and are murdered for using the "wrong" restroom!

This hatred and violent rhetoric from folks in the disability community towards the trans community needs to stop! NOW! There are trans people with disabilities actively and passionately fighting for disability rights and what do you do? Throw them under the bus! Indeed, in the past few days, I've seen some disabled folks throw every marginalized community under the bus, making insensitive, inappropriate comparisons, playing the "we've got it worse than you" game, and asserting that disability rights are more important than other's rights because there's more of us. Then, when people from other marginalized groups, including trans folks, call you out, you have the unmitigated nerve to respond with unparalleled arrogance, hostility and tears! Really, y'all, really???

All of you disabled folks talking and writing smack about trans people and why their rights aren't as important as ours because "they choose to be trans, but we don't choose to be disabled" need to stfu and sit the hell down! Trans people DON'T "choose" to be trans and their rights and safety are EVERY BIT as important as us disabled folks!

Let's stop this ish NOW, ok? Hating on, comparing and playing Oppression Olympics doesn't help either of our groups; in fact it hurts, even destroys us both. Both of our communities live with oppressions of different kinds that, due to intersectionality, sometimes overlap. We must be allies and fight for each other or we'll both go down!

One last thing. If there is ANYONE on my social media who thinks that trans people shouldn't have the same rights as others, delete and block me! I don't care if we're family, friends or colleagues. I don't play that!

In the past couple of years, there's been much attention given to police violence against unarmed, mostly, Black folks.

What's disturbing about this is the reaction of the mostly White disability community. I noticed that when the victim was White and the disability known (Ethan Saylor), people were very sympathetic; he was seen as innocent. When the victim was Black and the disability unknown, that person was seen as a less than good person, or a criminal. Even when the victim was a child (Tamir Rice), doing what little boys do, he was blamed for his own death because he didn't follow instructions. When it came out that he was killed less than two seconds after the cops came on the scene, Tamir was still seen as responsible for his death.

What got to me was how people, including again, mostly White disabled and disability rights activists, believed the police accounts of what happened. When it was discovered that in many of the cases, the police lied and covered up their wrongdoing, people, including folks with disabilities, still found reasons to vilify those folks.

That is, until it was found that they had disabilities. Now they're trying to claim folks like Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice and Michael Brown. Disabled folks who talked mad smack about them and others now want me to forget what they said now that they've been found to be one of us.

Frankly, I think that's hypocritical. Perhaps, because I'm a compassionate person, I embraced all of them from the beginning no matter their race because they were murdered by out of control, sometimes racist, cops. The fact that some of them turned out to have disabilities changed nothing for me because I already valued their lives.

What's up with this? It's infuriating to me that these folks' lives seem to matter more to some disabled people now that it's come out that they lived with disabilities. It also pisses me off that the White victims were presumed innocent while the Blacks, without exception, were victims of character assassination. None of them were innocent, not even the child.

Now I know that not every White disabled person or activist has behaved in this fashion. An amazing sister in the Movement has been putting her body and life on the line in Ferguson and St. Louis, Missouri, with Black Lives Matter since the murder of Michael Brown. She has been assaulted and tear gassed/pepper sprayed by the cops in addition to being arrested and her property stolen or destroyed.

So, if what I've been ranting about doesn't apply to you, you have no need to be offended by what I'm saying.

Now, what about the others who aren't disabled, like Akai Gurley and John Crawford, III? Are their lives worth less to us disabled because they aren't one of us? I understand, and am outraged that half the folks killed by police are disabled. Still, I get angry when that fact is brought up almost in competition, to the fact that every 28 hours, someone Black, often unarmed, is killed by cops. Both facts are horrible. Neither trumps the other. Let's stop being apathetic or hostile to these folks unless they are disabled. Their lives matter either way.

Often, I read about disability rights activists in other countries and marvel at how fortunate we are as disability rights activists here in the United States.

We, as a movement, are treated remarkably well by police, especially if we're one of the respectable groups doing a march or rally.

I am a member of ADAPT, which needs no introduction when it comes to disability rights groups. We are well-known, in fact, most known, for our willingness to do non-violent civil disobedience, up to, and including arrest, in our fight for disability rights and justice. Back in the day, police brutality happened fairly often to those of us who walked on our hind legs (because we were presumed to be leaders) and those of us in wheelchairs who wouldn't shut up.

These days, police violence is extremely rare at ADAPT actions. Yes, some cops may try intimidating some of us, but they rarely go past that.

What would happen if police treated us like they do activists in other countries? Hell, what would we do if we were treated like the civil rights activists of the '60s or the Black Lives Matter activists of today?

As someone who got her ass kicked on the regular by cops in the early days of ADAPT, activists in other countries are truly kickass and badass for what they are willing to go through! We disability rights folks here are spoiled. We compare ourselves to civil rights folks knowing full well that we didn't go through a tenth of what they did on the front lines and in the trenches! We don't go through a tenth of what disability rights activists in other countries go through. We have it very easy in comparison. How many of us would put ourselves on the line if cops behaved here like they do in other countries or as they do here to BLM folks who protest?

We here are fortunate that we don't go through what other activists go through. Sure, occasionally, we get cops in riot gear and gloves at ADAPT actions, but I went to a BLM protest in Denver and was literally millimeters away from cops with GUNS taller than me and nightsticks that came to my shoulders! They fired teargas at us AFTER we dispersed. As I was pickin' 'em up and puttin' 'em down trying to get out of Dodge, feeling like the world's biggest coward, I wondered what we in ADAPT would do if we were faced with that (or worse) kind of police violence? I know that I was scared to death! We were nonviolent, but they came at us with military gear and were prepared to use it.

So, ADAPT, and other disability rights activists, what of it? If real violence was used against us, what would you do? Would you put it on the line? Would you continue to fight nonviolently for freedom? Are we that desperate? Do our rights matter that much to us?

I'm NOT trying to shame anyone. Many of us can't get in the trenches. Many folks do activism online and endure trolls who bully and try to destroy them. They're badass because they stick around and don't give up. Some of us can only do things behind the scenes, but that doesn't make us any less badass.

My question is for those of us disability activists here in the United States who can and do go into the trenches because whether we realize it or like it or not, we have it easy. I ask because at the rate things are going, we're going to start enduring what others already are. If we are smart, we will consider this carefully and prepare for it. If we want to be treated equally, we'd better understand that equality means both the good and the bad, and one of these days, the cops are going to decide to stop giving us special treatment and treat us like other groups.

If we are prepared, we will survive. If not, who can say?

So, again, I ask: Would you continue to put it on the line of the cops got real with us? I know what my answer would be.