/u/Queerability on Why is it...

Unfortunately, as depressing a thought as that is, I think you're right. I do agree with what someone else here said about allos being bothered by not being able to understand something.

I'm disabled and the first thing a lot of my customers at work try to do when they see my cane is understand WHY I need it. It's not affecting them in any way, but even the ones who are polite enough not to ask usually just stare at it for a while before deciding not to verbalize their confusion. The ones who do ask mostly seem to take in how tragic it is that I'm young and disabled, it doesn't matter how much I tell them I've had a really awesome, bad ass (I mean, how many people can say they've driven a MRAP through a mostly inactive minefield with only nightvision to guide them?) life so far. Either that or they decide I'm not as bad off as whatever they're dealing with so all is right with their understanding of the world again.

My gf is mtf and she runs a trans support group and the need for cis folks to understand does a lot of harm there as well. People think it's good to try to understand someone so they rush into that process and end up making snap judgments that put other's lives & happiness at risk. I mean think about it, how often do trans people get called "unnatural"? Same for us really. It used to be more heavily the case for the disabled population as well, with it being expected for us to hide our abnormalities or else stay home at all times with family caring for us. Human nature is very slowly and painfully changing to accept differences. It's going to take longer than our lifetimes though I think....

April 30, 2020 at 11:47PM