“I feel like we need people… with disabilities, or who are younger, to be in office,” Zuleny Gonzalez tells me. “If we have a better way [of] coming together and noticing that we have the similar issues or similar, you know, experiences, it will be better for more people.”
Gonzalez might only be 24, but they have a wealth of experience in bringing communities together. From being an activist with Partners for Youth with Disabilities, Black Lives Matter, and Boston’s LGBTQ community, they’re constantly seeking new ways to introduce intersectionality into their communities. A task that would be daunting for most is a task that fires them up.
“I have more work to do [there] because LGBT is very white centered … like, the reason why you have these rights is because of Black trans women and Black trans people who have [gone] in the front lines and helped us to get to where we're at… a lot of the times you sort of feel like you have to pick and choose. Like, should I talk about my Blackness or should I talk about being gay? It's not fair to have that Black person sort of pick and choose their identities instead of just having to talk about all of them. 'Cause it might be something to do with me being gay and me being Black and me being disabled. That's all important. That all goes into context.”
Despite their passion and motivation, it isn’t always easy for Gonzalez to get out the door; living with ADHD, autism, chronic pain, anxiety and depression all threaten their activism work.
It was their impaired mobility and executive function that led Gonzalez to pick the mail-in option for voting in this year's election. But the process didn’t prove to be as easy as they had hoped.
“I put it in, [but] they sent me another [ballot] because I supposedly didn't sign it… I didn't know I had to sign it, so they sent it back," they said.
Gonzalez did note, however, that they thought this was a far more accessible method for voting than going to the polls in person, which posed additional health and saefty concerns due to the pandemic.
“Especially if someone's not able to make it physically to the polling place, that they're able to get [their ballot] in the mail and they're able to send it back. It just would have made sense even way before the pandemic happened," they said. They noted that in past elections, they weren't able to get to their polling site, but had no other option to vote. So they weren't able to vote at all.
Gonzalez' learning difficulties also pose a challenge when it comes to quickly digesting the information on a ballot. While voters have the right to take 5-10 minutes in the voting booth, sometimes that’s just not enough.
“[I need] someone to help me, like, wait, what does this mean? Or what does that mean? …And sometimes I get it. Sometimes I don't. And if I don't get it, then I don't say anything, and I just put my name there because it's very confusing… like, the questions where they put it, how they phrase it, you don't understand. So, then you're second guessing yourself — [it’s not] an easy yes or no question. So that's why I like [the mail-in option] where I get to sort of look through it while having the ballot in my hand… and sort of take the time to get through every single question [and think of] every single, like, personal feeling.”
Despite the challenges of voting during the pandemic this year, Gonzalez remains hopeful — and fired up — for what lies beyond Election Day.
“Taking the fact that I'm one of the young people that's caring about what's going on in this country and want to make a difference, you know, whether it's voting, whether it's protesting, whether it's anything in between… there's actually young people that actually care… we actually want things to happen and [we’re] not just going to sit around and wait until something happens.”
Photo Credit: Mass Advocacy for Children
