I am joining the march because it matters. I receive Social Security and Medicare and am pretty much uninsurable due to pre-existing conditions. My daughter is thirteen and has many years ahead of her when reproductive issues will matter hugely and personally. Many of my friends also have disabilities and/or are not neurotypical, and quite a lot of them are somewhere under the queer umbrella. My daughter’s best friend is both Muslim and a US citizen, the child of immigrants. I want her to be safe and free to practice her religion.

Less personally, I believe in social justice. Unironically. The way we treat the least privileged members of our communities says a vast amount about our ethics and morals. My daughter desperately wants a world where all people are accepted and supported, not because she feels directly threatened but because she’s kind and knows that other people are hurting. How can I do less? We need to take care of each other or we become less than human ourselves.

I believe in the importance of government involvement in the social safety net, in access to education, in protecting the environment, in managing our infrastructure, and in other things I’m forgetting at the moment because it’s 3 p.m. on the 21st. I believe in the free press, in voting rights, in affirmative action, in privacy protections, in a single payer health care system, in the right to protest, and in judicial independence.

Biography: I’m 49, cis, het, white, and Christian. I’m married with one child, a daughter. I’m disabled by fibromyalgia, generalized anxiety, and a slew of other overlapping physical issues. I have lived most of my life in Michigan.