Comments on: Cross-post by request (or, why is BIID so repulsive?)

By: Aleser

Aleser — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 23:04:51 +0000

It may be a horrible joke, but it’s not an offensive one.

By: Sean

Sean — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:18:37 +0000

Yeah, what Claire said ;)

I was going to make a horrible joke, saying “hear hear”, but I don’t know you quite well enough yet ;)

I’d add to Claire’s welcome that there are no offensive questions if you genuinely want to learn about BIID.

By: Claire

Claire — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:01:27 +0000

Aleser, thank you for taking the time to post. I appreciate your thoughts. Far from overstaying your welcome, I wish more people with disabilities would take the time to talk with us and try to understand us. Being accepted by the disability community at large is EXTREMELY important to me. I need to fit in, I need to be able to share experiences, I want acceptance, equality. It’s people like you who care enough to want to bridge the gap between our two communities who are going to be able to help us do just that. Honestly, we need more advocates within the disability community. Thank you for being here, and you are MORE than welcome to stick around. :o)

By: Aleser

Aleser — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:23:36 +0000

First, I simply hope I wont end up overstaying my welcome. Sometimes, it’s hard to show the difference between interest and just being creepy over the internet. Neurodiversity (heck, diversity in general, too)as it exists in a largely un-noticed and unseen disability population (those with BIID) is quite fascinating. I hope nobody doesn’t mind me observing this. If you do, I shall exit the electronic door.

Second, I strongly consider deafness a disability. As a purely personal belief, I find the rejection of the highly accurate title “disabled” to be nothing more than the implication that disability is an unacceptable state. If we don’t believe that being disabled is okay, how will we ever convince anyone else that we’re okay? Heh.

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 02:46:29 +0000

Aleser, thank you for your comments. It’s good to see some people with disabilities reading and interacting on this site :) One of my aim with transabled.org is to create more communication between those who have BIID and those who have other impairments (setting aside the question of whether or not Deafness is an impairment/disability) ;)

You’ve pretty much said what I intended to say in my Open Letter: http://transabled.org/thoughts/open-letter-to-the-disability-community.htm

By: Aleser

Aleser — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:38:30 +0000

“I believe that in the end, peoples’ reactions to BIID reflect their deepest inner feelings about disability. If you’re disgusted that someone would want to be a para…then what is that really saying about what you really feel about paraplegia?”

I understand this- over and over, the concept of BIID comes up within the Deaf community and without doubt, almost all people express disgust and discomfort at the thought that someone would -want to be like us-.

It baffles me that we can both be proud of who we are yet also consider deafness an undesired state, one which attempting to obtain is “crazy.”

I’m pretty sure the same applies to other disability communities… how can one argue that their disability is a respectable trait and at the same time be repulsed by the thought of wanting it?

By: Gordo

Gordo — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:12:55 +0000

That post was more or less on target. One of the reasons why I haven’t outed myself to any family members is that my family members have strong opinions about what constitutes as negative. They appear to be “okay” with things that they consider abnormal, including not only disabilities but also things like race, religion, orientation, etc., but if they found out that I wanted to join any of those things, they would absolutely freak out. This isn’t just a guess either, because I’ve heard them rag mercilessly on gays, other races, etc.

If they perceive those things as “wrong” (even though, for example, people of other races may perceive my family’s race as equally “wrong”), then it’s even tougher to sell the idea of BIID to them.

Sorry if that’s off-track, but that post really is a bit accurate in many more ways.

By: Claire

Claire — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:45:23 +0000

I know you weren’t miffed, I was just joking. ;o)

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:12:06 +0000

I wasn’t miffed at all. I thought your post on Paradevo was most excellent and would greatly benefit the readership on this site :) Thank you for posting here.