Tell the Cincinnati Police Department that an #OstomyIsNotATragedy!
August 2, 2013 at 9:24 am Rebecca K. 1 comment
Earlier this week, a story came out on WCPO, a local news station in Cincinnati, about the Cincinnati Police Department’s newest initiative to try and deter at-risk youth from entering into a life of violence. Sounds great, right? Well it would be if they weren’t using images of people with ostomy bags as the deterrent. In fact, in the story Lieutenant Joe Richardson says,
“You’re not killed, but you’re walking around with a colostomy bag and that’s just not the way to get a girl’s attention, by limping down Warsaw Avenue with a colostomy bag.”
If that’s not offensive, I’m not sure what is.
Well, the IBD community is fighting back against this distasteful discrimination against those with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, colorectal cancer and other ailments who live everyday with ostomies and lead full, meaningful lives.
Yesterday, the Huffington Post ran a piece I wrote with Stephanie Hughes from The Stolen Colon about this new initiative and why it’s not okay to further stigmatize ostomates. Here’s a snippet from the piece:
There are more than 500,000 people in the United States living with ostomies for a variety of reasons, including Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and colon cancer. These people live normal lives — they have meaningful emotional and physical relationships, hold jobs, and go swimming, rock climbing, sky diving and every other activity under the moon. Ostomies, for many, are not a punishment — they often mark the beginning of a new, pain-free life.
There is also a petition circulating urging the police department to apologize and stop discriminating against ostomates.
Lastly, we are using the hashtag #OstomyIsNotATragedy on all social media outlets to track people’s efforts to reach out to the CPD and urge them to stop this initiative.
So get involved everyone! Sign the petition and take to the social media universe and let’s all stand together telling the Cincinnati Police Department that an #OstomyIsNotATragedy!
Entry filed under: Advocates, Caregiving, General Disease, IBD News, Treatment. Tags: CD, Cincinnati, Cincinnati Police Department, Colostomy, crohn's, crohn's disease, discrimination, Huffington Post, ibd, ileostomy, inflammatory bowel disease, ostomate, ostomy, OstomyIsNotATragedy, Permanent ostomy, stigma, stoma, Temporary ostomy, uc, ulcerative colitis.
Caring for Crohn's & UC 
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fortheloveofhugs | August 2, 2013 at 11:10 am
Reblogged this on For the Love of Hugs and commented:
I’ve been incredibly lucky thus far with my Crohn’s disease, but the hard truth of IBD is that I could end up with an ostomy at some point in my life. It blows my mind that a police department would use this is a scare tactic for at-risk youth. Sign the petition to show them that this is not okay, that ostomies are not tragedies, and that folks that have survived awful things because of their IBD are not cursed by their ostomy.