Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
I told a friend this afternoon about my recent revelation of being autistic. I've known her for years, and I thought she'd be supportive, but she wasn't at all. She questioned why I'd want to have a label. And she also said "well we are all on the spectrum to a degree". I felt she was being distant, and almost dismissive. I tried to explain how this revelation has been positive and is very freeing for me. Our phone conversation has upset me. And I wonder if it's time to move on from this friendship. This isn't the first time she upset me in recent months.
Has anyone else had this experience? I'd like to hear your views.
Both these and similar threads resonate with me as an older Irish gay man here in the U.K. who was diagnosed later in life at age 53 now and aside from the political issues, coming from an Irish Catholic background and coming out as gay in Rural Ireland in the 1980’s, I experienced much the same issues - we see much of the same discussions going on in LGBT circles where autism acceptance and understanding is not as it should be, in fact, despite the high numbers of LGBT people being autistic and autistic people being LGBT, the discrimination and prejudice from within the LGBT community against autistic people is off the scale, yet I also believe that we as autistic people can learn much from the struggles of the LGBT community to gain acceptance from wider society and including from within the LGBT community - personally, I cut all ties with the LGBT community 18 years ago because of the discrimination and prejudice that I encountered there, yet my autism even before my diagnosis, just as much as my being gay was accepted within traditional and Vatican II Catholic circles