Staring Down Aetna
by Eliot Daughtry
Eliot Daughtry is a media artist, technologist and educator with Killer Banshee Studios.
This contribution to the #TransDayOfVisibility series is a cartoon originally published in a 2019 zine by Microcosm Publishing (https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/10324#). The zine, titled “Proud to be Retarded #3: Autistic People Interacting with Authority” is a publication of reclamation and empowerment – full of vibrant words and images. The description of this zine notes: “The R-word has been used against us as hate speech for decades. Neurotypicals have tried to dictate our motives, experiences, and words without stepping back to look at how taking the word away does nothing to take away their attitudes behind it. While leftist culture has abandoned the word “retarded,” we are still treated with the same hatefulness and discrimination implicit in that word.”
Eliot’s cartoon is focused on being denied healthcare services because of being a transperson.
Click here for the full cartoon in PDF.
You can follow Eliot on social media at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eliotdaughtry
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/anutherwun