I'm sorry but pls be so real right now. there are way too many people surprised that a girl with Down Syndrome was put in that arena. Literally look at our laws RIGHT NOW about what kinds of support or protection disabled people have in the country. There are places legally allowed to use over powered cow prods on disabled people

disabled people weren't allowed out in public until RECENTLY. Disabled people can't get married without potentially losing the little benefits they get. We have to fight for Bare Minimum accessibility at all times. The Holocaust was jump started as a solution of removing disabled people who "drained resources". Disabled people are sterilized against their will or without being told. Disability pay literally is not enough to live on and it's engineered that way

this country was Built on eugenics and the blood and bodies of disabled people*

it is absolutely, one hundred percent, not surprising in the Least. President Snow isn't some special kind of monster to put a disabled girl in that arena. Most politicians today would do it within a blink of an eye sorry lol

look, community gatekeeping is harmful and all, but it’s also important to acknowledge that people who are not actually marginalized constantly try to speak over people who are actually marginalized on the topic of that marginalization, and that it’s perfectly reasonable and generally helpful for someone to take a hard line against ‘jokes’ about people who claim to be oppressed. there’s a difference between creating a place for people to hang out and befriend each other, and creating a politically active space.

like yes obv we see a lot of people being like ‘oh aces and aros aren’t really lgbt’ or making fun of nonbinary people, and that sucks. but, on the other hand, there are tons of white people out there who pretend to be poc, especially claiming “““native heritage”””, and then try to speak like they have experience dealing with racism. there are people out there being like ‘I was depressed once and here’s how I fixed it you have no excuse not to cure yourself’. (there are “ex-aspec” and “ex-trans” people out there, too, we’ve all encountered them.) some amount of gatekeeping is necessary if you’re trying to create a safe space; spaces can’t ever be safe for everyone.

passing privilege is a real thing. it’s not the ‘privilege of being erased’, it’s the privilege of not being subjected to certain things people do to people who are visibly members of an oppressed group. it’s not anything about how you feel internally. it’s not anything about your expectations of the world or the narratives you were trained to believe. it’s entirely about how people will statistically treat you based on their assumptions about you. the privilege isn’t having to stay in the closet, which is obviously a negative; the privilege is being more likely to be promoted or given a raise, which is obviously a positive.

marginalization is about different things. it’s often about a lack of voice and a lack of representation, and it’s often about fear and anxiety and an inability to benefit from the things society considers positive, and it’s often about finding social interaction difficult or having to try harder to find or form a community with people who are like you, sure. it’s also often about what other people do to you, or how structural features of society will impact you, or about the likely trajectory of your life. which has very little to do with how you feel about yourself, and is instead entirely based on what other people assume or know about you.

which is why many people, even if they are subject to oppression, will make other members of a support group uncomfortable: they look or act like the oppressor; they represent the thing that the members of the group fear, the thing that makes them feel like they’re not free to speak or express themselves. and if people have to censor themselves to accommodate other people, obviously that’s not a successful or beneficial safe space for people to deal with their shit. which is why gatekeeping is not only helpful but actually necessary to a successful support group. (celebrations, clubs, resource centers, help lines, informational events, discussion panels, etc. aren’t support groups and should not be treated as safe spaces, but instead should be open to everyone.)

there are absolutely people who try to go into support groups with the intention of insulting people, trying to trigger them, revealing their secrets to the world, and otherwise being cruel to them. it is absolutely reasonable for someone organizing such a group to be skeptical of a person who seems like they’re trying to do that, which is always going to include people who claim their life story is something generally used to mock a marginalized group, even when it’s actually true.