Say no to mask bans

Hagstone Art

Excerpts from a Substack piece by The Disabled Ginger re: "how the shooting death of Brian Thompson is being used to re-ignite interest in banning masks in New York City - a move which would be a devastating blow to the disabled community."

This idea that masks are driving criminal activity is incredibly harmful to disabled and high risk individuals who NEED to mask for their health. It promotes the spread of disease - and discourages people who are still Covid cautious from masking.

There’s also no evidence to suggest it stops crime - and studies have shown that sunglasses obscure identity more effectively, yet no one is trying to ban them...

How far we’ve fallen that people are more concerned with banning masks than guns.

Masks bans won’t stop crimes. All they will do is fuel hateful anti-mask rhetoric and make public spaces even less safe for disabled and high risk individuals...

I naively assumed that the same people who screamed about personal freedom and bodily autonomy would oppose these bans. After all - telling someone they’re not allowed to use a medical device is a clear violation of autonomy and freedom...Of course I was wrong. They celebrated these bans.

People were cheering for them and saying they can’t wait to “rip the masks off our faces”.

In June the North Carolina ban passed - albeit with a very narrow and problematic medical exemption added back in. The ‘exemption’ allows medical masks for the purpose of “avoiding spreading a communicable disease”. Whether you can mask to avoid catching a disease - or to protect yourself from pollen or wildfire smoke - remains a legal grey area.

Who makes the determination with respect to whether YOU are masking for legal reasons? The police. As you can imagine, this is incredibly scary for people - especially those who are marginalized. These bans give police an excuse to stop, search and potentially arrest someone who’s doing nothing more than trying to safeguard their health.

Soon after the North Carolina ban passed - we heard of a woman with stage four cancer who was harassed in a store because she wouldn’t remove her mask. Another patron yelled at her that she was a “liberal” and demanded she take it off. When she explained she had cancer - he coughed on her.

This is where mask bans lead.

Read the whole piece here.

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