Content Warning: The guide and source text reference rape and sexual abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, anti-gay bias, anti-trans bias, racism, ableism, classism, and medical abuse/neglect. The author also reclaims and utilizes a number of slurs and derogatory terms, which are referenced and quoted in context throughout this guide. These terms include: “cripple/crip,” “dyke,” “gimp,” “freak,” and “queer.”

Aurora Levins Morales describes some art as ringing through her like a bell, “vibrat[ing]” through her and inspiring her to write. Eli Clare’s Exile and Pride is such art. Writing in 2015, Morales reflects on the impact of racist violence in the world: violence against African American residents of Ferguson, violence against students in Ayotzinapa, and Zionist violence against Palestinian people in Gaza, for example. Morales considers her personal background as a bi, Puerto Rican Jewish woman in the context of the challenges of Zionist violence and antisemitism. 

Morales then explores the similarities between her and Clare’s backgrounds. Both grew up “marginally middle class” in poor rural communities that they feel a strong connection to and that are being destroyed by corporate greed (xii). Both were sexually abused and tortured as children, both moved to cities to find themselves when they became adults, and both have conditions that affect their ability to live in a world designed primarily for able-bodied people.