Rayna Lamb - She/her
purplegoddess.bsky.social
Rayna Lamb - She/her
@purplegoddess.bsky.social
Wheelchair dancer, feminist, exhausted. Love books, musical theatre.

I knit, garden, read, roll my eyes at politicians, yell at ableists, avoid cold weather, back up people making the world better, etc. Trans rights are human rights. Ban cauliflower.
Pinned
This is a wonderful, original take on The Little Mermaid that I feel so lucky to be dancing in.

Please consider donating to this project and sharing this post, we need more disability stories in all of the arts, but ESPECIALLY in dance. 

#disability #dance #ballet #FairyTales
A New Ballet by Underrepresented Artists
chuffed.org
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
You should do that. It is good.

Queer historical for people who had it up to here with dukes.
relevant to my last post: if you would like to read A BLOOMY HEAD, my first historical romance/mystery, you can currently get a paperback ON SALE on my website! $7.99 + shipping!

www.sharonjgochenour.com/store
Store — Sharon J. Gochenour, author and illustrator
Do you want to buy books directly from me? Here! Here is the place!
www.sharonjgochenour.com
December 9, 2025 at 4:37 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
PSA: if anyone in your life is trying to dissuade you from getting the shingles shot, you should probably assume that person hates you, and wants you to suffer. There is literally no other explanation.

Shingles hurts worse than childbirth. Worse than knee surgery. Worst pain of my life.
I am baffled by this because I have had so many friends with shingles and NONE of them made it sound fun. Not one. A vaccine that made me absolutely miserable for 48 hours would still be a huge improvement over the mildest case of shingles I've heard of. (Also it made me tired for 1 day.)
All over my FB people talking about their bad experiences with shingles vax and dissuading each other from getting it! We need to give people real info on how to mitigate the symtoms caused by vaccines because vaccines are always better than meeting a virus unprepared. Yet drs aren't coaching ppl
December 9, 2025 at 3:07 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
It's time to close the circle... @natania.bsky.social 's QUEEN OF MERCY, the final instalment in her QUEENS OF FATE trilogy is out now!

Morgen le Fay's magic has vanished, the Council of Nine is broken and the battle for Arthur’s legacy has just begun…"

geni.us/queenmercy
December 8, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Huge if true, but I am dubious.
Scientists now believe that the human brain--a magic goo for worrying--can also be used to do other things
December 8, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
RE todays rotten vaccine news...

A Pox on Fools arrives in May. It's a historical polemic that traces the serial falsehoods that drive today's anti-vax movement.

It's my most important work. And it needs help.

Pre-orders & 1st week sales make or break books. If you are interested...here's a link:
A Pox on Fools by Thomas Levenson: 9798217155002 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
An urgent and profound history of vaccine skepticism, seeking to understand how our three most common fears about vaccines hardened into a lethal ideology—from a leading science writer Since the...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
Eugenics isn't bad because it's a bad word. It's bad because it leads to the mass death of the socially undesirable.
December 4, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
This is really cool. I treasure feedback like this because I don’t really be having the literary clout & it’s heartwarming to know my stories are touching people. Someone posted this on insta.
December 4, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Fucking YES. I got some disability accommodations in high school, but my mother said this in my 20s at a social event -`When R was a child she was eligible for all sorts of support, but we said no, other children need it more than she does'.

I have moderate to severe cerebral palsy.
I am also going to add , that part of the reasons we don’t means test is because of how often disabled people are abused by people in their own families .

That the PARENTS being rich doesn’t mean they actually take care of the kids and in fact often use that as control
I don't care if a non-disabled person accesses a disability accommodation for the same reason I don't care if a child whose parents are rich gets free lunch at school. We don't need to means test being a kind person. I have better things to do with my time than be a cop over social services.
December 4, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
Disabled people deserve healthcare.

Disabled people deserve housing.

Disabled people deserve food.

Disabled people deserve support.

Our ability to work and produce should not determine our value.

Disability is not a moral failing. Most people will experience it someday.
December 4, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
Official #PoveratiXmas thread! 🎅🧵

Drop your wishlist links or paylink details with your Xmas wishes in the thread below with the hashtag #PoveratiXmas

Share widely and hopefully some #PoveratiXmasAngels will make some wishes come true!
November 30, 2025 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
Everytime I advertise a product being accessible to disabled people. I lose sales because able-bodied people feel like it isn't for them as well.

My products are for anyone that likes or wants them. You don't need to view yourself as disabled to want them too.
December 4, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
I’ve forgotten this sometimes but being able to discover something you like, curate it, and make time to enjoy it *is* intelligence, connecting with art is intelligence, empathy is intelligence, the way of the dullard is to find nothing meaningful in art except for a way to seem snidely clever
December 4, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
Incredible story. Second post in the thread is alt text. #histmed
Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard
December 2, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
There are more disabled people who are pretending to be healthy so that you don’t judge us or think us incapable than there are healthy people pretending to be disabled. If you find yourself questioning whether someone is really disabled, you’re doing the work of the oppressor. #disability
December 2, 2025 at 2:48 AM
I don't celebrate Xmas, and I am vvv over all of the public Xmas stuff by mid-December, but I really love most Xmas carols and songs. In The Bleak Midwinter, The Holly and the Ivy, The First Noel for traditional songs and Fairy Tale of New York for secular songs
What is your favorite "Christian" Christmas song and what is your favorite "Secular" Christmas song?

I will probably always adore "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" for Christian.

And "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" for secular.
December 1, 2025 at 5:26 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
What is your favorite "Christian" Christmas song and what is your favorite "Secular" Christmas song?

I will probably always adore "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" for Christian.

And "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" for secular.
December 1, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
It is Black Friday, but it is also Fund Me Friday.

In honor of Link, who remains unjustly banned, I am carrying on the tradition of Fund Me Friday. Drop your mutual aid links beneath this post and I will repost them for as long as I can.
November 28, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
If you need a little light relief today, check out this website 😆 Properly gave me a chuckle.
Make sure you click on all the links for the best experience! My favourite bit was a glimpse into #AndrewLloydWebber‘s bank account 🤣🤣🤣

andrewlloydwebsite.neocities.org
ANDREW LLOYD WEBSITE
andrewlloydwebsite.neocities.org
November 27, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Seriously. I started taking dance lessons in my 40s, singing lessons this year at 51, and performed in my first professional (small, but we had funding to PAY performers) ballet for 3 weeks this month. Acting lessons are on the cards depending on my energy levels.
Addendum to this excellent post:

You do not have to be good at something to have fun.

Don't hold yourself up to hyperrealistic or professional or your favourite ___ standards.

You're new and learning!
Be YOU, not a copy of someone else.
I'm old.

If you're not, listen to this.

Get a guitar or some drums, or a trumpet. Pick up a brush, a pencil, some clay or a welder.

Just make shit. It doesn't have to be good (eventually it will be) just make music, art or write or whatever.

It's literally never been more important.
November 27, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
Bigotry is a symptom of precisely zero mental illnesses.

Fascism too.

Leftists have got to unpack their saneism.
November 26, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
Australia recorded ZERO cases of cervical cancer in women under 25 for the first time since they started tracking the cancer in the 80s.

This is the power of vaccines.

The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer.

Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!
newsGP - Australia set for world-first cervical cancer elimination
Vaccination programs have played a key role, and GPs remain ‘instrumental’ in boosting screening rates to reach the 2035 target.
www1.racgp.org.au
November 27, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
Just gonna say that the entire US White House press corps could set themselves up for a similar moment of satisfaction if they could be arsed.
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Fellow Aussies and Kiwis. We need to up our sausage sizzle game... 😋😋😋
Leaving Oslo today and I was finally able to find a hot dog on lefse (potato flatbread) with shrimp salad and crispy onions for breakfast at the airport.

Verdict: delicious
November 26, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
new favourite New York Times term for a British thing just dropped
November 26, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Reposted by Rayna Lamb - She/her
Today, Little Lobbyists honors #AliceWong, a ferocious advocate for disability justice and disability culture-maker who died on November 14 at the age of 51. Alice was a larger-than-life figure in the disability community and a friend to Little Lobbyists

1/🧵
November 24, 2025 at 8:47 PM