discourse is a joke

Here’s a book written by a transgender medical professional. He’s a doctor. With a PhD.

And here’s what he said:

I’ll transcribe it in case you can’t read the text:

“The term transgender is often used as an umbrella that includes all gender-nonconforming people. It is also used more narrowly for those transgender people who transition from their assigned sex at birth to their identified gender.”

Did you miss it? It was subtle.

The term transgender is often used as an umbrella term that includes ALL GENDER-NONCONFORMING PEOPLE.

Before you ask, no. There was no further clarification made in the following paragraphs, or following chapters. That is literally what transgender means these days.

I am diagnosed with extremely severe ADHD, as well as MDD, GAD, EDNOS/OSFED, bipolar II, mild asperger’s syndrome, dyscalculia, and past severe BPD. my mental disorders impact every single aspect of my life in a very meaningful way. I have literally never been able to function in normal school or work environments, and have had to attend specialty schools and find non-standard sources of income. 

and a LOT of people are fucking SHITTY at interacting with people with psychological disorders. I’ve experiences bullying, abuse, social ostracization and extreme patronizing behavior because of my issues.

so yes, it DOES stand out to me when i see people exhibiting symptoms of mental disorders, and i AM hyperaware of how the people around them respond. 

from what i personally have observed from Dream’s stream/video persona, he doesn’t display many detectable symptoms of ADHD. the hyperfixation/special interest thing is very apparent, obviously, and he also seems especially prone to infodumping/word-vomit/blurting, high excitability, and distractibility. Dream’s ADHD is real and valid, and just because he doesn’t externally present very much in his social media persona doesn’t mean that it isn’t a struggle for him. 

but when i DO see it coming out, most people who he collabs with are good with it. and as a person with a lot of traumatic experience with people NOT being good with it, that DOES make me legitimately happy and excited to see. 

that doesn’t mean that Dream needs to be babied, and it doesn’t mean that his friends are angels for ‘putting up’ with him. it just means that his friends (some more than others) are willing to meet him in the middle in terms of communication and interaction that’s accessible to all parties involved. 

and that’s super pog! i love that! like i said, i get happy when i see it! and i think that it’s okay to comment on how nice it is to see. 

what’s NOT okay is projecting some sort of power/value dynamic onto ANY party based off of a disorder. and that’s what i see sometimes. 

honestly, i see a similar-but-not-the-same thing when people talk about how George’s friends are nice to him about his colorblindness. the big difference with that one is that i don’t see people babying George about it in any way beyond lighthearted teasing. which i think is okay, as long as people are being sensitive about it.