Howdy yall, I'm a new member on the site and long time barefooter. I don't wear shoes because of my tactile sensitivities associated with autism/aspergers. I receive a lot of hate in public but sometimes I have real cool experiences, too. After years of discrimination, exclusion and harassment, and countless instances of police misconduct, coercion and threats directed at me on account of my lack of footwear, which has always been declared associated with my diagnosed sensory issues, I have decided to fight back.
I don't know if yall know this, but the average life expectancy for an autistic male in the US is 37 years. I turned 38 this year. I have put up with a lifetime of abuse, including discrimination, exclusion, harassment and police misconduct, and through it all I have never been able to find anyone (i.e., lawyers) to help me fight against it. This has been very discouraging for many years, but in January 2022, something snapped in me when I was ganged up on, viciously assaulted verbally in front of other customers, threatened with assault and charged at by an employee who threatened to physically throw me out of the store because I refused to leave until after I made my intended purchase -- you know, like some folks did in North Carolina back in the 1960's to help end the Whites Only variety of pies in our society.
I did my research and knew that the letter of the law protected me, guaranteed my access and prohibited law enforcement from executing their official duties to aid, abet or encourage discrimination based on my documented medical condition, and I was naive enough to believe that if I showed them that on paper, they would follow the law instead of acting like a private mercenary service for untrained and uneducated employees in local businesses. Oh boy did I think wrong.
I was arrested for trespassing because I refused to leave until being allowed to make my intended purchase. That case got dismissed and I returned to the business a year and a half later, after going to paralegal school and learning roughly how to advocate for myself in court, because no matter how heinous I have been treated in the past, there seems to be some unwritten rule in the legal profession to leave poor folks in the shithouse when it comes to access to justice. If you go on Westlaw (your local courthouse law library should provide you with free access), and search for cases involving discrimination in places of public accommodation specifically because of disability (not race or sex), you find that folks with disabilities seem to have no options other than to represent themselves in these cases, and virtually all of them end on some stupid procedural technicality rather than on their merits, because of this unwritten rule to deprive "useless eaters" of access to justice when they are abused in private businesses.
I aim to throw a big fat wrench in this tyrannical machine, somehow, someway.
That said, I'm not backing down, and I'm not tolerating the discrimination and harassment anymore. I'm fighting back. I'm filing lawsuits and holding untrained, uneducated abusers accountable. I will hold the businesses accountable. I will hold the owners of the businesses accountable. I will hold the managers/employees accountable. I will hold the police accountable, and because I'm not the stereotypical pro se litigant in some ways (my research tends to be quite extensive and thorough), I expect either I will prevail or I will be murdered by police pretty soon.
All that said, I go everywhere barefoot and I will continue to go everywhere barefoot. After years of abuse and intolerance directed at me, being barefoot has become an essential part of my identity. I'm that barefoot dude who shovels snow barefoot, hikes rough terrain barefoot, walks across the blacktop without any troubles in the summer and refuses to leave stores without being able to make intended purchases, citing a need for "reasonable modification to policies, practices and procedures" to afford equal access to goods and services.
Recently, after losing 60 lbs and feeling like I have aged backwards at least a few years, I started short bursts of running barefoot. Usually, I run on the treadmill because I'm still 235 lbs and the impact is softer on all my joints. Occasionally, I may jog a few blocks outside when I'm feeling particularly strong. Eventually, I want to be able to run a marathon, but my cardiovascular conditioning is the barrier to that, not my bare feet.
I'd perhaps like to make some friends around here, especially among those who don't wear shoes because of sensory disturbances or disability related, and who are particularly fed up with being discriminated against and excluded in society simply for existing and being noticeably different from the norm. We should band together and fight to bring an end to this happening. This is 2024, it's not the 1950's, discrimination on this level should not still be happening in our society, especially over such a trivial issue as idiots in businesses don't like the way we look when we walk in, barefoot.
I am also fascinated with religious/cultural reasons people don't wear shoes. I read the other day about a guy who is suing someone citing, "when Moses met God at the burning bush, the first thing God told him was to take off his shoes because the ground was sacred." That's true, according to the story, and I don't know why I never really noticed it. What would our world be like today if we maintained this perception that the ground is sacred throughout the centuries?? We would probably treat each other better in our day to day interactions. That's my guess. So yes, I'd love to learn more about folks barefootin because of strongly held religious/spiritual convictions, as well.
I don't know if yall know this, but the average life expectancy for an autistic male in the US is 37 years. I turned 38 this year. I have put up with a lifetime of abuse, including discrimination, exclusion, harassment and police misconduct, and through it all I have never been able to find anyone (i.e., lawyers) to help me fight against it. This has been very discouraging for many years, but in January 2022, something snapped in me when I was ganged up on, viciously assaulted verbally in front of other customers, threatened with assault and charged at by an employee who threatened to physically throw me out of the store because I refused to leave until after I made my intended purchase -- you know, like some folks did in North Carolina back in the 1960's to help end the Whites Only variety of pies in our society.
I did my research and knew that the letter of the law protected me, guaranteed my access and prohibited law enforcement from executing their official duties to aid, abet or encourage discrimination based on my documented medical condition, and I was naive enough to believe that if I showed them that on paper, they would follow the law instead of acting like a private mercenary service for untrained and uneducated employees in local businesses. Oh boy did I think wrong.
I was arrested for trespassing because I refused to leave until being allowed to make my intended purchase. That case got dismissed and I returned to the business a year and a half later, after going to paralegal school and learning roughly how to advocate for myself in court, because no matter how heinous I have been treated in the past, there seems to be some unwritten rule in the legal profession to leave poor folks in the shithouse when it comes to access to justice. If you go on Westlaw (your local courthouse law library should provide you with free access), and search for cases involving discrimination in places of public accommodation specifically because of disability (not race or sex), you find that folks with disabilities seem to have no options other than to represent themselves in these cases, and virtually all of them end on some stupid procedural technicality rather than on their merits, because of this unwritten rule to deprive "useless eaters" of access to justice when they are abused in private businesses.
I aim to throw a big fat wrench in this tyrannical machine, somehow, someway.
That said, I'm not backing down, and I'm not tolerating the discrimination and harassment anymore. I'm fighting back. I'm filing lawsuits and holding untrained, uneducated abusers accountable. I will hold the businesses accountable. I will hold the owners of the businesses accountable. I will hold the managers/employees accountable. I will hold the police accountable, and because I'm not the stereotypical pro se litigant in some ways (my research tends to be quite extensive and thorough), I expect either I will prevail or I will be murdered by police pretty soon.
All that said, I go everywhere barefoot and I will continue to go everywhere barefoot. After years of abuse and intolerance directed at me, being barefoot has become an essential part of my identity. I'm that barefoot dude who shovels snow barefoot, hikes rough terrain barefoot, walks across the blacktop without any troubles in the summer and refuses to leave stores without being able to make intended purchases, citing a need for "reasonable modification to policies, practices and procedures" to afford equal access to goods and services.
Recently, after losing 60 lbs and feeling like I have aged backwards at least a few years, I started short bursts of running barefoot. Usually, I run on the treadmill because I'm still 235 lbs and the impact is softer on all my joints. Occasionally, I may jog a few blocks outside when I'm feeling particularly strong. Eventually, I want to be able to run a marathon, but my cardiovascular conditioning is the barrier to that, not my bare feet.
I'd perhaps like to make some friends around here, especially among those who don't wear shoes because of sensory disturbances or disability related, and who are particularly fed up with being discriminated against and excluded in society simply for existing and being noticeably different from the norm. We should band together and fight to bring an end to this happening. This is 2024, it's not the 1950's, discrimination on this level should not still be happening in our society, especially over such a trivial issue as idiots in businesses don't like the way we look when we walk in, barefoot.
I am also fascinated with religious/cultural reasons people don't wear shoes. I read the other day about a guy who is suing someone citing, "when Moses met God at the burning bush, the first thing God told him was to take off his shoes because the ground was sacred." That's true, according to the story, and I don't know why I never really noticed it. What would our world be like today if we maintained this perception that the ground is sacred throughout the centuries?? We would probably treat each other better in our day to day interactions. That's my guess. So yes, I'd love to learn more about folks barefootin because of strongly held religious/spiritual convictions, as well.
