Reader’s Reviews > Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice > Status Update

Maybe Leah could be considered a “child” of Frida if we consider the ways Frida performed marginalized identities for personal gain and activist clout, fabricated lore, and engaged in theft at the expense of Indigenous sovereignty…

Although much like Leah, Frida was a person of European heritage who fetishized Indigenous people, engaged in Indigenous cultural identity theft, and performed fabricated family lore with culturally appropriative clothing and hairstyles

Leah’s Irish great-grandfather Anthony James Conlon was a star of early 1900s basketball. Born in Ballina, Mayo County, Ireland, he immigrated to the U.S. as a child with his father and brother, Pat & Patrick Conlon who settled in Fitchburg, MA. Anthony married Emma Bergner June 11, 1901. Her ancestors immigrated from Saxony, Germany. Leah also has ancestors from Bützow on her dad’s side.

On p. 9 Leah thanks Frida and Harriet’s Children workshop participants. This is an example of the ways Leah has profited from cultural identity theft. Leah created a workshop Leah is not, nor is anyone in her family a “child” of Frida or Harriet. This is fraudulent representation and exploitation of falsely claimed marginalized identity for personal gain and activist clout. Leah is German, however. Not bipoc.

Still on page 9. I am a survivor of The Seattle Disability Justice Collective. It was a destructive group where physical and sexual assaults occurred with extreme exploitive labor practices, theft, and abuse. Most evidence of DJC Seattle has been scrubbed by narcissistic abusers & financial predators dodging accountability for criminal behavior. Susan Naomi Finkelstein aka Bear has a long record of assault and theft

Clarification on the last comment. I was in the Sick and Disabled Queers Facebook group from its early days. It was not always secret & changed to a secret group later. I was not in the bipoc SDQ group and do not know who moderates that, but it’s my understanding the moderators of that group removed several white people misrepresenting themselves as people of color. Leah’s accomplices were among those removed.

Still on page 9. Leah thanks the Sick and Disabled Queers group and the Sick and Disabled Queer and Trans People of Color Facebook group. These are secret groups moderated by high-control narcissistic abusers. Sick and Disabled queers was founded by a white race-shifter— notoriously racist Erika Maria Reinstein, who has also used pseudonyms Billie Strain, Billie Rain, William Maria Rain, Mix William, & Rain-Shadid

Leah thanks the Harriet Tubman Collective. Like Leah, Talia A. Lewis is narcissistic & has enabled Leah’s harmful behavior for years. I guess when you have a book written by a movement narcissist, there is going to be a long list of enablers and other narcissistic abusers in the acknowledgments section.

One more comment about the Deaf Poets Society. There was previously a group with the same name that was legitimately a Deaf community group featuring Deaf poets. That’s not what this is. One tactic of predatory journals is to select names that are the same or similar to legitimate groups. It’s a deceptive tactic intended to manipulate people. Hearing disabled people: it’s not okay for you to behave this way.

Leah also thanks the Canaries. I don’t have direct experience with that group but as a neurodivergent person I have experienced abuse from Leah specifically targeting me as a neurodivergent person. She’s been extremely harmful to other ND people. The majority of those she has abused are neurodivergent. She exploits neurodivergent and Autistic communities intentionally. Stop giving her access to new victims.