A special guest blog from Lizz Winstead!
I don't even know how to recap Garbage Fyre Festival so I am gonna freewheel! I am so overwhelmed by the week in Wisconsin. There are too many people to thank, but I dedicate this post to all The Garbage Fyre Fighters:
Achieving real change means commitment. It takes dedication, organization, time, passion, energy and a long-term strategy that requires sustainable and consistent actions that create a long game. In order to achieve justice, the goals must be more important than your ego and often your comfort level. It means feeling the work in your bones! It means that you have found the thing that makes you thrive. It means even when you experience the fear, the exhaustion, the insurmountable challenges, you are excited to wake up and do the work because of the profound joy and inspiration you derive from the people you work with, the people you directly service, not to mention the joy derived working to make life better for people we may never meet, who are suffering because of the oppressive laws in their states.
It is life-changing work to gather with folks from around the country who share the same purpose, to defend the bodily autonomy of anyone who seeks abortion care, trans care, or birth control from the monsters outside of every clinic in America, who feel entitled to berate every patient with threatening and belittling language. It also means checking in and being a support system for those who provide the care. In Wisconsin, Abortion Access Front and so many partners did just that. We joined forces with badass activists from all over the country, all who rose to the occasion to expose and override the messages and the tactics of anti-abortion extremists. AAF set the foundation but together with our family of escorts and activists from Milwaukee and around the country, we shut down hate with love, and protected clinics and patients from the oppressive and terrifying tactics of the white supremacists who descended on Wisconsin. And we exposed Wisconsin and America to who is behind the laws and tactics of reproductive oppression. We can’t win if we don’t know who and what we are up against. That all changed last week as we brought the enemies of autonomy into the light. We are growing a movement and we are energized and I am so grateful to my AAF team and the coalition members we call Scrappy. I am stronger, better, more energized because of the love and commitment of this group of Garbage Fyre Fighters! We are all stronger, better, more energized because we have each other. My life is changed forever because these people inspire me everyday.
