I am joining the Women’s March to the Inauguration because my disability, which is increasingly shared by millions of Americans, is caused by toxins saturating our environment—our air, water, land and food chain. These toxins are causing disability and even death for adults and vulnerable children everywhere, and especially near energy (nuclear, and oil and gas extraction, transportation, and processing) facilities. The new administration has promised on countless levels to roll back already-inadequate protections, exposing us all, and threatening the prosperity of individuals, families, and our nation as a whole through the weakening and disabling of its workforce.

Luckily, I am a fiction editor, and able to work at a desk in the one room of my apartment where it’s safe for me to live. I say luckily because my disability, called MCS/TILT (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity/Toxicant-Induced Lack of Tolerance), makes it impossible for me to do something as simple as visit the laundromat, shop for groceries, or earn a living anywhere but the safely controlled environment at home.