Published on 12, July, 2020
Unless it’s because I’m male or something. I certainly seem to have been discriminated against.
In 2019, people made false accusations about me and got me kicked out of a netball club in Stirling.
I tried to find another netball club, but the netball clubs I contacted were all reluctant to tell me anything about themselves, and when I asked further questions about them they just stopped replying or whatever. I also contacted the netball club in Stirling about rejoining, because their constitution says I can ask to rejoin at the next general meeting. They ignored me.
I contacted Netball Scotland, and asked them to investigate why I was being treated the way I was by these 4 netball clubs, and was told they’d investigate it.
I turned up at 1 of the netball clubs (they’d told me they weren’t playing because of the Covid 19 pandemic, and they’d tell me when they started playing again, but never did tell me), and played netball with them anyway. I literally only played there 6 times before they found an excuse to get me suspended by Netball Scotland!
In September 2022, I had the police at my flat, saying that I’d contacted someone at netball saying I need some new friends, and asking me not to contact her again. Then the next day, I got an e-mail saying I’d been suspended from Netball Scotland. They didn’t even say anything about why!
Eventually I found out that the reason I was suspended was, among other things, that I’d allegedly “communicated with a club member, Christina [surname removed by mod], that was uninvited and persistent which placed her in a state of fear and alarm”. I’d sent her 1 message on facebook, she’d replied, and then I replied to her message; and I’d only asked perfectly normal things like “How long have you been playing netball?” and “Where do you live?”
1 of the other reasons for the suspension was that I’d chased Natalie up about her investigation about netball clubs not wanting me to join. I’d supposedly failed to show her respect.
This post’s getting a bit long, so to cut a long story short, I had a hearing in March 2023 about it. And all the complaints against me were upheld, and I’ve been suspended by Netball Scotland for 5 years!
They haven’t answered any of my questions such as “What’s wrong with being friendly?” or “What’s wrong with doing to others what I would have them do to me?” or “What’s wrong with asking Natalie to do her job?”.
What happened at Stirling was brought up to demonstrate a “pattern of behaviour”, but nobody even told me what this pattern of behaviour was. The accusations there were completely different.
I’d put a complaint in about Natalie not having done anything about her investigation. Is this the real reason I’ve been suspended?
Oh 2 other questions that have never been answered are “Would I have had the same reaction to contacting Christina if I was a woman?” and “Would I have had the same reaction to contacting Christina if I didn’t have Asperger’s syndrome?”
So I seem to have been discriminated against.
Mark said:In September 2022, I had the police at my flat, saying that I’d contacted someone at netball saying I need some new friends, and asking me not to contact her again.
It's PCs gone mad...
If what he’s telling us is accurate it does sound like PC gone mad doesn’t it. I imagine maybe if he’s the only guy in the class and maybe he’s at the top of their age range and the rest of the class members are closer towards the bottom maybe people are viewing this with a very biased stereotyped lens.
but that’s no excuse for professionals like the police or even a netball club to be applying those sorts of stereotypes and biases to these sorts of situations
Hello, Peter,
Your immediate response to Mark's opening post was to suggest that he contacts a lawyer; in doing this, you've somehow overlooked the extraordinary measures taken against him (police involvement, an exceptionally long ban etc etc) - why would your default position be to agree that he has been discriminated against when his own words imply not discrimination but persistently troubling actions and attitudes regarding women?
It's very understandable that we here generally take the side of our fellow autists...but that in itself shouldn't be our default position in every single case.
Steven said: you've somehow overlooked the extraordinary measures taken against him (police involvement, an exceptionally long ban etc etc)
Not at all. large organisations frequently get their obligations under discrimination law very very wrong when it comes to autism and a visit from the police doesn't necessarily signify anything other than a complaint being made to the police. The police generally do get involved when accusations of harassment are thrown around, not because actual harassment is taking place, but because they reason making people aware that they are watching the situation will keep things from escalating to the point that there might be harassment going on.
Steven said:why would your default position be to agree that he has been discriminated against when his own words imply not discrimination but persistently troubling actions and attitudes regarding women?
I'm not at all persuaded they do but even if they did that doesn't mean discrimination law doesn't apply. Even if there is a genuine cause for concern about him discrimination law can still require that those concerns be approached a different way and lead to different outcomes.