by Leah Ida Harris | Nov 26, 2025 | Disability Justice, disability rights, involuntary hospitalization, Massachusetts, Mental Health, News, Psychiatric Confinement, psychiatric facilities, Psychiatry, racial bias, Racism
On November 18, 2025, Massachusetts advocates gathered for hours at the State House as they have, year after year, to beat back yet another legislative proposal for involuntary outpatient commitment, or IOC. Involuntary outpatient commitment laws create a layer of specialized courts that use the so-called “Black Robe Effect,” which uses a judge’s authority to compel people with diagnoses of…
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by Jesse Hagopian | Oct 21, 2025 | ACT UP, COVID, Disability Justice, HIV/AIDS, Long COVID, Op-Ed, Pharmaceutical Industry, Public Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
For more than three years, I’ve lived with long COVID. The dizziness never leaves. I can’t drive more than half an hour without starting to get nauseous. Any strenuous activity — mental or physical — leaves me with post-exertional malaise that feels like a hangover the next day. I’ve learned to adapt and find gratitude for many things, but life remains an exhausting calculus of rationing…
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by Christina A. Samuels | Oct 18, 2025 | Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Disability, Disability Justice, disability rights, Donald Trump, Government Shutdown, Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, Linda McMahon, Mass Layoffs, News, Project 2025, special education, Trump Administration
Two months after Education Secretary Linda McMahon was confirmed, she and a small team from the department met with leadership from the National Center for Learning Disabilities, an advocacy group that works on behalf of millions of students with dyslexia and other disorders. Jacqueline Rodriguez, NCLD’s chief executive officer, recalled pressing McMahon on a question raised during her…
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