Disabled and trans led mask distro & info coalition facilitating mutual aid & education towards disability justice, environmental justice, & community defense
this is why everyone needs to mask EVERYWHERE. not just at protests. using masks to protect yourselves at protests but not to protect disabled people is eugenicist behavior, and it’s going to get us killed - if not by COVID, by cops.
ID: this video features nazis in black balaclavas, shades, black pants, and red shirts on a sidewalk carrying swastika flags and a banner that says “there will be blood.” there is a bald man in a red suit leading chants including “there will be blood” and “all hail the aryan son”
ID cont.: there are cops with blue vests over their uniforms standing to the side. a person who is mic’d and speaking at the drag event is speaking ab the beauty and resiliency of the queer community
🚨 the ER
@RiversideHosp
here in Columbus, Ohio just called security on one of our immunocompromised community members because they requested providers to wear a respirator.
they forced them to leave, assaulted their advocate, and threatened to arrest them. ACTION ITEM BELOW!
facemasks up 25% this year, medical gloves up 25% in 2026, syringes and needles up 50% this year… eugenics is evident in every part of this dying empire - from everyday antimask culture to tariff hikes on masks and other products disabled people need to stay alive.
we can’t survive fascism and its comorbidities (COVID, wildfire smoke, surveillance, etc) without respirators. mask criminalization is happening to us in our area and we’re advocating for resistance, not nasal sprays.
signed,
a mask bloc
If this happens to you in your area and you still want to stay COVID safe, I have personally had a TON of success staying COVID safe with nasal sprays. I use Covixyl. It’s not a drug. It simply changes the pH of your nasal cavity so viruses cant survive
Signed,
An epidemiologist
🚨 CALL the Riverside Hospital operator at (614) 566-5000 and ask for the ADA hotline. ask them why disabled and immunocompromised people are being systematically endangered, forcibly exposed to pathogens, and expelled while in health crises. ask why staff are refusing to mask.
🚨 our community member was seeking emergency care at Riverside as advised by their doctor because they have chest pain and shortness of breath. instead they were discriminated against and expelled for needing to be protected from airborne infections. this is eugenicist violence.
mask blocs aren't clubs, cliques, or nonprofits. they're disability justice affinity groups in an anarchist lineage of militancy. we exist in aspiration for abolition and in support of subversion. we follow black blocs in politics and strategy. we materially resist state violence
anyways, tomorrow mask bloc 614 will be roadtripping to pick up 11,000 respirators (auras!) to distribute for free to our community. we’ve raised enough to cover the auction costs, but we’re short on gas and u-haul money. if you’re able to help, our venmo is
@maskbloc614
"why is a mask bloc talking about abolition?"
the first principle of disability justice is intersectionality. we do not live single issue lives (audre lorde). masks are not single issue tools. we cannot abolish the prison industrial complex if we don't resist surveillance, and
if you are not masking (and you are able to), you are signifying your support for the criminalization of masking. you are standing against pro Palestine protesters. you are following fascist orders.
people are facing felonies in Ohio NOW for masking.
RESIST - MASK UP
this is the letter our bitch ass attorney general sent to universities regarding pro Palestine protests, threatening us with 6-18 months in prison, up to $5k in fines, and 5 years community control FOR WEARING A MASK TO PROTEST.
this isn’t a slippery slope, it’s the wayside.
let’s start a thread for folks crowdfunding for elastomerics and respirators! mask bloc capacity and coverage is limited, and masks can be expensive as hell. Black folks to the front!
you're not an abolitionist if you are able to wear a mask yet you're refusing to.
COVID is airborne and weaponized through eugenics along the same intersections of harm as the prison industrial complex. unmasked public spaces are carceral against immunocompromised people.
My wife has had 8 brain surgeries, I wear a mask to protect her. I will not comply because I cannot comply. You will have to arrest me again and again and again.
all ableism is selfish, but the ableism of wearing masks/respirators when there are air quality emergencies and refusing to do so to protect disabled people (and yourself) from the ongoing COVID emergency is particularly visual and particularly vile.
protest aftercare includes monitoring for symptoms, testing for COVID as you’re able to, informing your comrades if you fall ill, and caring for each other.
we are all we have for contact tracing and pandemic mitigation. we MUST mask and maintain our own public health networks.
the growing network of mask blocs and mask distribution projects is abolition in action: we know the state won't keep us safe, and we're not going to wait and pretend we'll be saved. we're making (anti)health departments obsolete by doing their jobs ourselves and better
update on our member: they have NOT been able to get care elsewhere. NOWHERE IS SAFE FOR DISABLED PEOPLE. their condition is not worsening, but their pain is making rest untenable, their chest is still heavy, and their breathing is labored.
🚨 the ER
@RiversideHosp
here in Columbus, Ohio just called security on one of our immunocompromised community members because they requested providers to wear a respirator.
they forced them to leave, assaulted their advocate, and threatened to arrest them. ACTION ITEM BELOW!
and now we have to understand that the reasons for wearing a mask are the same whether it's a protest, a grocery store, or a park.
in addition to state surveillance, we're resisting viral genocide, doxxing, and air that is unsafe to breathe. masks are bare minimum solidarity.
protect yourself and your community by wearing high quality masks! central ohio residents and ohio organizers can request free masks here, and our dms are open for other inquiries!
this already exists in Ohio (Revised Code 3761.12). people have already faced felony charges for wearing masks. it’s spreading because the precedence here is allowed to prevail.
we are very concerned about the MLM esque push to propagate "mask blocs" not only with a lack of disability justice and care work, but also with hierarchal schematics that alienate our disabled organizers.
mask distribution needs to be anti-eugenics at its core.
day 5 of pride month and one of our members has tested positive for COVID.
we are here, we are queer, and we are being sacrificed for the the status quo, for capitalism, for police-inclusive parties that snub the very movement they claim to continue.
we were black bloc before we were a mask bloc.
we wore N95s for chemical weapons before we wore them for COVID.
mask distribition is mutual aid when we're centering the needs of those most marginalized by eugenics. our work must be anti-racist and thus abolitionist at heart.
today we distributed over 2,000 masks to help our neighbors keep safe from climate catastrophe, covid, and cpd surveillance. and we’re goddamn proud of that!
we were called “inflammatory” for commenting on posts asking why the encampment organizers refuse to wear masks and facilitate masking…
you wanna know what’s actually inflammatory?
FUCKING COVID.
Infections in dairy workers are likely going uncounted.
Farm workers, especially dairy workers urgently need:
-Practical PPE, and training on proper use
-Paid sick leave
-Widespread testing and treatment
leftists defending their decisions to show up to communities in need of mutual aid maskless are hilarious (read: heinous) because you know who else shows up to communities maskless claiming they're there to render aid? pigs.
that's a parallel that y'all don't get to just ignore
are you an organizer looking to purchase masks for community care and defense?
are you unsure of where to find affordable, high quality respirators?
you’ve come to the right page! comment or dm so we can help connect you w online shops and discount codes.
ya know that Fisher Scientific sale that's being shared around? they've cancelled our order, after already fulfilling part of it, because they realized we aren't a business? apparently affordable masks are only for capitalists. we already promised those to our community...
chemical weapons killed and disabled protesters in Columbus, Ohio in 2020.
so why are organizers refusing to lead by example and wear masks? why are they refusing to facilitate masking? why are they doing more to alienate disabled advocates than to keep people safe?
More than 7,500 participants gathered and raised more than $800,000 for breast cancer research and treatment at the 32nd annual Komen Race for the Cure Saturday.
if you’re speaking on precedence of antimask laws, you need to actually include the already EXISTING antimask law in Ohio. that’s how precedence works.
happy lesbian week of visibility to all the lesbians who regularly wear masks & to those who are unable to due to disabilities!
& a reminder to all that “visibility” doesn’t mean shit when we’re rendered invisible by eugenics & exile. masking is a lesbian love language 🧡💖❤️💜
by wearing masks, we're reclaiming power from the PIC by curbing facial recognition software. we're protecting ourselves and our communities from being identified and targeted by carceral systems.
COVID and pollution harm those already most killed and captured by the PIC, and
massive amounts of appreciation and love to all who sent funds and sales links - we now have 800 VFlex N95s (both small and standard size) to distribute for free to communities throughout ohio! ❤️🔥
those most harmed by state/sanctioned violence are Black, Indigenous, and POC disabled poor people across intersections of gender, geography, and more. mask mutual aid must be anti-racist, and that's impossible without abolitionist care work
we will be at the protest today distributing free respirators!
and we are calling for all organizers to stop being eugenicists and to get a grip on basic opsec and community defense by wearing a fucking mask.
protesters are following your lead, so lead with care.
if we don’t go to the protests we’re not doing enough to have an opinion, but if we do go to the protests we can’t have an opinion because we’re handing out masks? because we’re “around the edges?” just say you hate disabled people. jesus christ
yeah, so what we’re not going to do is downplay Ohio Revised Code 3761.12 because it is specific to the commission of “crimes.”
it is a crime in this country to be Black, to be Indigenous, to be undocumented, to be trans, to be disabled, to be homeless, to be Mad, to resist…
"If we’re going to be able to have solidarity with global struggles, we have to understand that the reasons for wearing a mask are the same whether it’s in Chiapas or Palestine or it’s the black block on our streets." (Walia)
we’re still waiting for leftists to oppose ableism. we’re still waiting for ppl w platforms to lift a fucking finger to protect and support disabled ppl and our collective future. we’re still offering our free labor to make this happen. and still nothing.
I need
@coolzonemedia
to cover COVID
I need leftist media in general to use their platforms to generate care and solidarity for immunocompromised people in order to generate a better future for ALL of us. silence is violence and it’s complicit w capitalist/statist erasure
addressing the impact of HIV needs to include protecting transgender and nonbinary people from COVID by wearing masks and facilitating masking. HIV and COVID disproportionately harm the same communities.
Today is National Transgender HIV Testing Day, a day to address the impact of HIV on transgender and nonbinary people. When we reduce HIV stigma and promote testing, prevention and treatment, we can help reduce fear. Learn more at .
@DisabledDem
@RiversideHosp
yes, they did consent, and they approved of the tweets themselves before they were sent out as well. this person is a maskbloc614 member. thank you for assuring autonomy and care here!
our use of "carceral" here is not only appropriation, but its use in this context is antiBlack because the language we're misusing is specific to the experiences of primarily Black communities who are directly harmed by incarceration.
thread of call ins for context & edu:
you're not an abolitionist if you are able to wear a mask yet you're refusing to.
COVID is airborne and weaponized through eugenics along the same intersections of harm as the prison industrial complex. unmasked public spaces are carceral against immunocompromised people.
not before he filmed these folks’ bare ass faces. there’s a direct correlation between organizers’ refusal to wear masks (let alone mention or require them) and protesters’ lack of masks. we’ve been offering them for over a year. organizers are just eugenicists first.
there is no such thing as a quick start to sustainable projects that center marginalized communities. urgency can be a central tenant of white supremacy culture
be wary of step by step guides that do not interrogate interdependence, intersectionality, & organizers' positionality
this thread is about North Carolina, but now it also applies to Ohio.
our attorney general is threatening to apply our state’s version of this code to pro Palestine protests. this is fucking horrifying.
if you’re just restarting to mask bc of the wildfire smoke, DO NOT STOP!
if you’ll protect yourself from the smoke you can see, but you won’t protect disabled ppl (and yourself) from a deadly and disabling virus that moves like smoke, you’re a eugenicist.
don’t be a eugenicist.
Ohio- Shoppers exposed to measles at busy Kroger grocery store health officials say – If you were in the Kroger Marketplace on 885 Union Blvd, Englewood, on Feb. 13 from 12:45 p.m. to 4 p.m., you were exposed to measles.
#measles
#englewood
#buckeyes
#vax
Columbus organizers are coopting ACT UP imagery while they refuse to require people to MASK UP.
it’s not lost on any of us that AG Yost said that protestors shouldn’t mask, and these “leftists” are enthusiastically following orders. y’all aren’t beating the fascism accusations!
masks are an abolitionist tool to resist the surveillance arms of the prison industrial complex too. if you refuse to wear a mask, your breath fuels viral genocide and your face fuels facial recognition software. masks are beginning to be criminalized and already stigmatized.
lotta trans day of visibility flyers that aren’t even accessible to blind and low vision disabled trans people… visibility for who? cuz it ain’t us
add alt text, ableists.
this thread is about North Carolina, but now it also applies to Ohio.
our attorney general is threatening to apply our state’s version of this code to pro Palestine protests. this is fucking horrifying.
fascists are citing antimask laws from the 1950s written to penalize KKK members to ban masks in response to pro Palestine protests
if you’re only advocating for and wearing masks to protect identities you’re legitimizing this. masks mitigate diseases and protect disabled people
An EPA whistleblower has stepped forward, saying the Environmental Protection Agency deviated from normal procedures when testing for chemical contamination after a train derailment in East Palestine.
Around 5 AM, students at
@cwru
were sprayed with paint while contractors called by CWRU attempted to cover the spirit wall. Around noon they returned and covered the entire wall with paint despite students following the spirit wall posting policy.
and recognize that we are in an ongoing and SURGING pandemic.
COVID is airborne and carceral institutions forcefully infect people.
COVID is deadly and disabling, and since the start of the pandemic, life expectancy collectively is plummeting.
Please take a moment this week to think about how the U.S. puts Black people in cages 6 times the rate of South Africa in Apartheid. Each year in a cell takes 2 years off life expectancy. Think about how these horrors are normalized and justified by the news we consume.
during the last protest we distributed masks at, our organizers were described on the scanner and followed by police for “hang[ing] around the edges” and distributing masks.
this attitude is IDENTICAL to cops’. nearly verbatim.
as people shelter from tornadoes and extreme storms in basements and other confined spaces and close quarters, airborne disease transmission is a huge concern.
respirator access and usage is an environmental justice issue. COVID is an environmental justice issue.
H5N1 Avian Influenza Detected In New York City’s Wild Birds
Scientists have found several strains of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus in a small number of NYC’s wild birds.
“… they should own their advocacy and avoid wearing masks.”
advocacy that does not include wearing masks is not advocacy anyone should want to own anyways. that’s eugenics. that’s bad opsec. that’s performative.
this is the letter our bitch ass attorney general sent to universities regarding pro Palestine protests, threatening us with 6-18 months in prison, up to $5k in fines, and 5 years community control FOR WEARING A MASK TO PROTEST.
this isn’t a slippery slope, it’s the wayside.
reminder that our taxes are funding genocide and cops instead of, say, infrastructure to protect people from compounding climate catastrophes like tornadoes.
our dms are open to support organizing efforts by and for disabled and high risk community members. we're working to create more resources to share to support our growing movement and resist liberal co-optation.
we will not tolerate our organizers being alienated by ableism.
⚠️ BREAKING:
Dairy cattle tested positive for H5N1 in Ohio, becoming the sixth state to have infected dairy cows, according to the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
by moving maskless, not only are grifter abolitionists spreading plague, they're building blocks for a culture that enforces eugenics through policing. mask bans already exist. disabled people are already dead and dying and exiled. Black disabled trans people are at highest risk.
@ngwagwa
thank you for your energy and labor calling us out on our problematic and appropriative use of "carceral" here. we see that we got that very wrong and appreciate that you showed us how!
the work of mask blocs specific to collaborating with mutual aid networks that are eugenicists against us (and those they serve) is traumatizing beyond words.
the emotional labor behind mask distribution (and ableist organizers' retribution) is so heavy.
you know who else shows up wrought with plague to Black and Indigenous communities claiming they're there to render aid? colonizers.
y'all move like christo fascist missionaries for the sake of what? the status quo? your IMAGE?
mask blocs aren't the founders of mask distribution, BIPOC disabled queer people are
before COVID, disability justice organizing already facilitated education and mutual aid centering masks and air quality amidst smoke, surveillance, chemical weapons, pollution, and illnesses
"... we will use our crip super community powers & do what we do best: make shit happen; make something out of nothing; & survive, 1 ride, 1 pill, 1 stop to rest at a time."
@miamingus
mask blocs make shit happen, make something out of nothing, & survive, 1 mask at a time
I can promise you that your anniversary event DID disappoint. it was a reunion for airborne pathogens, celebrating exclusion of immunocompromised people, and recommitting to eugenics just as another covid surge is underway. fuck your cheers, but you can definitely GO.
it is never surprising when organizations who practice eugenics implode.
ableist organizing will *never* be sustainable. will columbus organizers ever get this? will y’all ever divest from the city’s colonizer namesake and stop spreading diseases?
@JasminMarsters1
@pan_accindex
no; do not co opt our work for this campaign. we are immunocompromised trans organizers. we will not be grifted by someone who’s been exploiting our community with ableist and deadly nonesense for DECADES. we aren’t promoting shit except mutual aid.
we have no interest in the state unless we’re talking abolition. we keep us safe means we keep us free from exploitation. we supply communities left to die by the govt w high quality masks for free and autonomously. we endorse community care, not candidates.
we called in our local bookshops on national indie bookshop day w free resource offerings (masks, info, access policy consultations), and they *ignored us*
y'all want us to support you so your industry doesn't die when you're facilitating spaces that would kill us. k