A stack of colorful plastic straws

Marco Verch Professional Photographer and Speaker/Flickr (CC-BY)

Woman’s horrific restaurant experience highlights the ableism of plastic straw bans

When she asked for a straw, the waiter said she 'seemed fine.'

 

Samira Sadeque

IRL

Posted on Jun 14, 2019   Updated on Dec 19, 2023, 10:24 am CST

A young woman’s story is showing people on Twitter how the ableism of plastic straw bans trickles down to deeply personal—and humiliating—experiences for some people in the disabled community.

User @EhlersDanlosgrl, who goes by Moe on her Twitter, shared a thread on Thursday about her recent experience at a local restaurant.

“I was declined a straw at a restaurant this morning,” Moe explained in her Twitter thread, which has received thousands of retweets. “The waitress had one in her apron. As she poured the water I said ‘excuse me miss can I have a straw?’ She said ‘we can’t just give them out’ and walked away.”

It’s not clear which restaurant the incident took place at, and Moe declined an interview with the Daily Dot. 

She says she didn’t receive a straw even after explaining that she has a degenerative joint disease, and when she asked for the manager, the waitress looked “pissed as hell.” The manager eventually gave Moe a straw but then whispered to the waitress, “people like that aren’t worth it just give them the damn straw.”

“I’m still really upset. STRAW BAN IS BULLSHIT. It’s just an excuse for ableism. A waitress should NOT get to ‘decide’ if I’m validly disabled or not,” she wrote.

Her tweets soon went viral, with many rallying for her:

https://twitter.com/Ael_Xander/status/1139313359462064128

The ban on plastic straws, including a citywide ban in Seattle and Starbucks’ announcement that it would transition out of using plastic straws completely by 2020, has raised alarms for many in the disabled community. Many have pointed out the hypocrisy of banning a product that’s often a necessity when other products make up a higher percentage of plastic waste in the ocean. NPR reports that plastic straws contribute less weight to the ocean’s pollution waste than bottle caps, for example.

It also doesn’t help that people on Twitter, often unaware, contribute to the shaming of those who need plastic straws.

https://twitter.com/EhlersDanlosgrl/status/1139228207733858304

Plastic straws certainly contribute to the ocean’s waste, and while abled people have the privilege to forego using them, it’s equally important that the experiences of people living with disabilities are taken into account.

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*First Published: Jun 14, 2019, 11:21 am CDT