I've been planning to go to a self defence class for queer people, but the closer it gets to the day, the more anxious I become about doing physical activity with others in an enclosed space with who knows how much ventilation during a covid surge. I had a really close call with covid recently and it's been making me super worried. Getting long covid would seriously fuck up my life as someone who already barely manages to get by with my current concoction of neurodiversity. I've already had two infections, and each subsequent one is more and more likely to leave you with long covid.

The way it gets treated in the UK seriously makes me feel gaslighted every day for even acknowledging that covid is a thing. Everyone (including my supposedly lefty friends) is just "back to normal" as the numbers of people out of work due to disability climb higher and higher (tripled since 2019 iirc). The most frustrating part is that we could have covid safe indoor spaces with enough ventilation & precautions, but nobody gives a shit about setting that up. I literally haven't encountered it even once. And it's like this by design — everyone loves to talk about the working class, but there is an underclass of completely disenfranchised people that the system uses as a threat to all those employed about what will happen to them if they stop. This country runs on ableism, it runs on racism and transphobia all the same and it's really frustrating to see most queer people (esp the white bri'ish ones) not acknowledge any of it as long as they're able to get theirs.

As much as I would have liked to learn some self defence, my main reason for going was actually to get some exercise, since I've spent close to 4 years now just kinda rotting inside being too disabled to do much. I really wanted to be around other people who know something about exercising, since I am so clueless, but it seems like I have to find a different solution. I used to go on lots of walks, but I've stopped in the past few months since the public transphobia reached its mouth-foaming peak around the time of the election. Now I get super worked up and have to work through my anxiety for hours just to be able to go outside.

If anyone's got any exercise tips for an atrophied bitch, I'd love to hear about it /g