Skip Navigation

should i cut this person slack due to their disability?

so this one girl, i’ll call her ella (19f) is transphobic, homophobic

she lashes out a lot, exaggerates things, and cannot read social cues. however, she has autism and adhd and is mentally much younger.

she also gets mad when i call a trans man “he” and she says “SHE’S A GIRL EVEN THO SHE LOOKS LIKE A MAN LOL”

she says she got her views from her parents and refuses to change because “it’s the way i am”. for someone who was mentally 19, I’d cut contact, but she’s mentally a lot younger.

55 comments
  • No. Autism is not a reason to be a bigot. Maybe the “lashes out” could be explained by sensory sensitivity (depending on the scenario and what you mean by “lashing out”), but that doesn’t excuse bigotry.

    Edit: also, what makes you say she is “mentally younger”? Autism and ADHD don’t stunt maturity in and of themselves

    • There seems to be evidence that ADHD brains are a few years behind in development. I think I remember it being 3 years on average? Don't quote me, I have ADHD and my brain shouldn't be trusted with details. Anyway, that really shouldn't result in the kind of behaviour OP is describing though.

    • No. Autism is not a reason to be a bigot.

      Autist here, completely agree.

      Many subtle, more context dependent social cues took me a lot longer than NTs, Allistic people, to figure out... though I excelled at school and have gone on to hold highly technical data analysis/reporting, db admin type jobs.

      Blatant bigotry is... not a very subtle or context dependent thing to understand.

      This fairly young 19F girl comes from a bigotted family that has completely or mostly normalized this kind of behavior, and has also infantalized her into believing Autism and ADHD are excuses for her poor behavior, as opposed to explanations.

      Right wing bigots tend to treat Autism (and really any mental disorder) as basically 'they're removed, just expect them to be shitty, and also I am a hero for raising a removed baby', as opposed to actually taking time to learn the ins and outs of how their minds operate differently, and learn together how to bridge that gap, with a bit of accomodation coming from both sides.

      This often results in infantilization of the kid, of just taking away their agency, instead of actually putting in the extra work to help them build up their agency and tweak or tune their worldview to be a bit more aligned with, or at least aware of, how much of the world doesn't operate by the rules that an Autistic person would default to.

      (Just go look at how RFK Jr apparently think we are literally pants shittingly stupid and will never pay taxes or go on a date... given the Kennedy family history of literally lobotomizing his own aunt I think it was, for her mental disorder... yeah not looking great for us NDs with this frat boy fail son with a brain worm where his brain should be as fucking Health Secretary.)

      Right wing idiot bigots are not very good at critical thinking, so... yeah, it makes sense that they also suck at teaching critical thinking.

      I have often seen this produce many additional behavioral problems in other younger Autistic people... because their idiot familes basically Munchausen-by-proxy their Autistic kids into beleiving they are far, far less capable generally than they actually are.

      In a sense, her family was probably bigoted toward her by treating her as a caricature of what Autism actually is during her most fundamental developmental years... needlessly stifling her mental development... so now she is doing the same and broadly being bigoted toward other people with other 'labels' that fit into other 'boxes'.

      This girl needs to learn to stop excusing her bigotrd shittiness by pointing at her mental conditions.

      There are plenty of people with Autism and/or ADHD who ... yes their minds work differently, but they aren't all raging bigots, thats on her.

  • Behavior like this is corrected by people letting you know that it's not okay. If you let it slide it will continue. I'm not saying you need to jump down her throat or whatever, but her parents have clearly failed to correct it (and probably encourage it). So your choice is to either accept it and defend her to everyone she alienates or to politely suggest that it's not okay and if she's not willing to change that you don't want to be around people who act like that. This shit only flies because no one has imposed consequences for this hateful behavior. I don't care how mentally developed she is, anyone can understand that hating others for who they are is bad.

  • Autism or not, this isn't an acceptable way to behave. You should be firm and tell her that she is wrong. I don't know about cutting contact but for sure that can be an option if she doesn't change. You don't need homophobic transphobic people in your life.

    Not aiming this at you but: when did it become socially unacceptable to condemn / chastise people with ADHD / autism when they say or do unacceptable things? This only emboldens them to do worse things.

    Also:

    so this one girl, i’ll call her ella

    Laughs in Spanish

  • Being "mentally much younger" is not an excuse to be an asshole. I've personally known five and six year olds who understand quite well that some people love and marry people the same gender as themselves, and also accept being corrected on whether someone is "he," "she," or even "they."

    Bigotry isn't natural, it's learned behavior you can accept and reinforce through your responses to her, attempt to correct, or simply judge her by and decide whether or not to continue involving her in your life.

    (If Ella isn't capable of matching the mental age of a toddler, the help she needs is probably beyond your ability or responsibility to provide.)

  • Ask her if her parents jumped off a cliff if she'd do it too.

    No, it didn't answer your question, nor is it helpful or useful advice. I just think it'd be funny and her parents absolutely used it on her at some point... it's a mandatory phrase all parents are legally required to say to their kids at least once. It's part of the contract you sign when the hospital gives you a baby.

  • While I know it's not exactly the same situation, bear with me. There's a leadership book called What got you here won't get you there by Marshall Goldsmith.

    It's focus on C suite people, their habits, and how their personality affects their career aspects, etc.

    The reason I bring it up is because in pointing out characteristic flaws the author talks about how people say, well this is who I am, or I'm just bringing my whole self to work as reasoning for behaving the way they do. Then the author goes on to say how this is an excuse for the unwilling behavior to change as people don't want to change who they are as a person, but rebuts with "is changing this one aspect of how you behave going to drastically change you as a person?"

    While I acknowledge that this person is young, I would say that pointing out that not saying anything is an option. She doesn't need to change who she is, just how she behaves and respecting others costs nothing. Additionally, if she is not willing to look at how her behavior hurts others then she is unwilling to mature. Being neurodivergent is not a justified excuse to be mean towards others. While it may be harder for her to understand, explaining that her words hurt people emotionally and asking her why she thinks hurting others is okay could be a good starting point.

    It goes back to the old saying, if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything.

  • I can't understand your situation but, I personally would be cutting contact regardless of disability. Nothing stated effects your decision making process, they are willingly having those values even if they may not understand the impact of their decision, I would rather stay far away.

  • Eh, even with that she should still understand consequences. I'd give her long time outs. Next time she does say that you are offended, and need time away. Start with a couple of days. When she does it again make it a week no contract. Make sure she knows its because she was mean and you don't want to be around mean people. Hold firm during that time.

    I don't like just saying one and done, give them a chance to change their ways. Even with autism that is informing them that they were offensive, and that there are consequences to that. It's their cross to bear, and I think that's being very generous in helping them learn that.

55 comments