Back on my soapbox, and a chant from the Stonewall days

[idiotgrrl]

Earlier this morning I posted a rant as a comment to someone else's post. The rant was about the intolerance of the normal population being responsible for a lot of our problems, and I made a muddled reference to the plight of the Native Americans. Thinking it over while cooking breakfast, I realize our case and the solution of it is not parallel

Comments

[hollowman]

I think there are pretty substantial differences between being homosexual and having aspergers - homosexuality is a single attribute and reactions to it are largely rooted in learned or political responses. Asperger's is more personal in a sense - not that it is more personal for the person with the attribute...

To put it another way, someone who hates Johnny Homosexual probably hates his homosexuality. On the other hand, someone who hates Johnny Asperger probably hates... Johnny Asperger. The hater does not even know he has Aspergers. They are responding negatively to personal traits and limitations in social responsiveness that don't really have a major learned component.

There are probably people who hate people with aspergers, and those folks can be reached to some extent, or at least combated. But the sad truth is, most people who dislike me don't dislike aspergers. They dislike me, personally, and aspergers is just a hidden contributor.

If anything, Aspergers is akin to other disabilities - and insofar as anything can be done, the focus that makes sense is practical solutions to difficulties in the workplace and the like.