09/23/2026
Our co-founder, Reyma McCoy, laid out the issues around this several years ago. And as of today, the worst possible outcome happened, unless you are disabled and trans, Black, brown, the wrong kind of disabled, have immigration status concerns…
If you are any of those, you already know.
Two years ago, almost to the day, multiple red states filed a lawsuit with the US DOJ. Texas v Becerra. They had a bee in their collective bonnet regarding language in the recently revised preamble (revised to make it, not the actual section 504... inclusive of gender dysphoria as a disability) to section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. They also used the lawsuit as opportunity to go after the integration mandate and regulatory language in section 504. Tldr: section 504 is about how disabled people should be able to live in the community- that includes access to services within said community. That's become a 200 billion dollars of Medicaid funding per year industry in the US and the revenue stream that directly/indirectly drives .
Big fu***ng deal.
Seriously.
Like, a deal to rally voters to the polls in the final days of the 2024 election cycle.
That didn't happen.
Nope, the Powers That Be of , including former Biden appointee/current GWU professor and author of aforementioned preamble, Allison Barkoff, along with DREDF, New Disabled South, the National Council on Independent Living, The Bazelon Center, and others not only kept quiet about Texas v Becerra, they shushed the few people who knew about it.
Trump won.
Again.
And waited until days after his second inauguration to inform the masses about Texas v Becerra. Their ask? Join them in groveling to protect community living and throwing Trans people under the bus. "Go ahead and nix the preamble but don't hurt sweet little gender normie Johnny with the Down Syndrome!" Basically.
I- alone- called this out.
I called out the trans-excluding disability "activism".
I tried to warn people that Texas v Becerra would lead to a domino effect of losses for the disabled people.
I got smeared. Hard.
And the motherf**kers that got disabled people in trouble got to be the motherf**kers that were looked to for the solutions. Kind of like the AI companies telling us all that AI is going to kill us all but to trust them to stop it from happening.
ANYWAYS, Texas v Becerra- now Texas v Kennedy is a done deal as of today.
The integration mandate and regulatory language around section 504 are VACATED. Couple that with the DoJ effectively kicking the Olmstead Decision to the curb a few weeks ago.
It won't end today.
Disabled people: your leaders did this to you.
Those of you who work within # who sat on your asses and have said nothing about this over the past two years: you're fu***ng complicit.
Shame on all of you.
I alone been tried to tell folks about all this s**t for years, now. To refresh your memory, please peruse both of these blog entries:
https://www.loiscurtis.org/post/bigdisco-s-letter-writing-campaigns-won-t-save-you-they-aren-t-even-for-you
A timeline of Texas v Becerra/Kennedy:
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69200578/state-of-texas-v-becerra/
Stay tuned for a strongly worded press release from DREDF, et al, written by Allison Barkoff.
