I was born with a connective tissue disorder, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and bad legs/hips – my hips were too vertical (a.k.a. coxa valga) and my femurs were anteverted, or rotated inward. I have had to put my schooling on hold for two years to correct my leg deformities, just to keep my hips in place and allow me to walk again. I march because I just as easily could have been born a racial minority, a person with nonbinary gender identity or sexual orientation, into a family with little to no resources, into a community with poor infrastructure, and/or with an even more debilitating genetic illness. I am no less capable intellectually, emotionally, or socially than an able-bodied person, and I deserve the same rights, opportunities, love, and respect that able-bodied (or rich, or male) people do. Our differences make us unique; they give us perspective. The day we stop caring for one another is the day all hope for a better future is lost. I march for social and income equality and RESPECT for all citizens, for all people.
I am a 23-year-old from Poughkeepsie, NY. I graduated from Union College in 2015 with a Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience. I am an aspiring clinical psychologist and am currently in the process of applying to Ph.D. programs (and going to physical therapy – forever going to physical therapy).
A smiling woman in plaid pajamas and a hip brace stands outside with her walker on a sunny day.
I had knee surgery September 15 to repair a meniscus sometime after that and after completing the physical therapy my physician believes I had a stroke and my knee which cut off blood supply and destroyed what cartilage was left so now I’m bone on bone and it’s been over a month waiting for a knee brace that supposed to help but eventually it’ll be a knee replacement . I’m only 65 years old, that used to be really old when I was a child, but now my mother is 91 and walks better than I do.My sister Helen Wilson, is at the March in San Diego and also exhibited some of her art in the Nasty Woman’s art exhibit in San Diego. She marches for all of us.I was it Obama’s first inauguration and I’ll never forget the love, we need that love again and it should come beginning in our White House !
Disability March 
I had knee surgery September 15 to repair a meniscus sometime after that and after completing the physical therapy my physician believes I had a stroke and my knee which cut off blood supply and destroyed what cartilage was left so now I’m bone on bone and it’s been over a month waiting for a knee brace that supposed to help but eventually it’ll be a knee replacement . I’m only 65 years old, that used to be really old when I was a child, but now my mother is 91 and walks better than I do.My sister Helen Wilson, is at the March in San Diego and also exhibited some of her art in the Nasty Woman’s art exhibit in San Diego. She marches for all of us.I was it Obama’s first inauguration and I’ll never forget the love, we need that love again and it should come beginning in our White House !
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