Imagine that people didn’t believe in blindness. That being unable to see was perceived to be a matter of defiance or laziness. Seeking excuses. Being stubborn. “Everybody’s a little blind, when you think about it.” “How do you know you’re really blind?” “So many kids these days are acting blind to get attention.” In this…
Category: Other essays
Pronouns and Paper Cuts
Part 1 It’s not about the pronouns. The pronouns themselves aren’t that important, which is why the pronouns are so very important. When you use masculine pronouns for me, you’re saying, “I see you as a man. It doesn’t matter how much you object, it doesn’t matter how much you don’t want to play the…
Gender-Inclusive Information
This is a list of my information and writings on Gender-Inclusive Language. Trans-Friendly Pronouns: An infographic Degendering your Language: An infographic List of essays on being non-binary and respecting non-binary students A Guide to Gender-Inclusive Language (8.5 x 11)
Star Trek: The Last Bigotry
Last night I had a dream about a new Star Trek show under development. This morning, I was thinking about why people are bigoted against transgender people. Within a few minutes, I realized I was thinking about the same thing. Part 1: The Dream In my dream, NBC had originally developed a spin-off to Star…
On Comorbidity
Dyscalculia is highly comorbid* with Autism. Hypercalculia is highly comorbid with Autism. Dyslexia is highly comorbid with Autism. Hyperlexia is highly comorbid with Autism. Many Autistics struggle with sensory overload and seek to minimize external stimulation. Many Autistics love sensory overload and seek to maximize external stimulation. Many Autistics prefer to live in households that…
On AI Replacing Humans
I was thinking this morning about the dialogue around AI like ChatGPT making human writing completely irrelevant. In a few years, computers will be able to create text that is indistinguishable from human-created text; some would argue that they already can. I was also thinking about the dialogue around AI Art programs like Stable Diffusion,…
On “Aspie Supremacy”
A topic I’ve been seeing a lot recently in the Autism community is what is being derogatorily called “Aspie Supremacy”. This perspective suggests that autism is evolutionarily superior to allism in general and Neurotypicality specifically. It appears to be called “Aspie Supremacy” because it centers Autistics with low support needs (who have historically been called…
On Learned Helplessness
(These are initial thoughts as I process through this concept.) I was prompted to start thinking deeply about learned helplessness by this tweet and its follow-ups: https://twitter.com/heymrsbond/status/1603757493171232768 (Source: “What is Learned Helplessness?”, Medical News Today) At the same time, though, I recognized a lot of this in my own behavior, as well as the behavior…
Is the Club Q shooter nonbinary? It doesn’t matter.
The person who allegedly killed five people at a gay bar the night before Trans Day of Remembrance has announced through their lawyers that they identify as nonbinary and use they/them pronouns. It would be easy to conclude that the alleged murderer is cynically trying to avoid Hate Crime laws by falsely claiming to be…
Twitter: Autism Story Time
Prompt on Twitter: “When did you first notice feeling confused by social expectations?” Reply: I don’t remember “first”, but… story time! When I was in fifth grade or so, the bully wanted to beat me up. I told him he could, but only if it was after school where nobody could watch. I told him…