Ta boo. Hope all is good with you x

Emily suffered similarly. The use of prone restraint on her left her traumatised. She’s a human being, all learning disabled people are. Those who are waging a culture war against truly vulnerable people disgust me. Their sheer ignorance & sneering arrogance is obvious to me.

She doesn’t hate anyone.
Why do so many people who should know better, clearly hate her? (19)

If Emily met you she wouldn’t hate you because you’re gay or a lesbian or disabled or trans,or a person of colour, or young, or old, a woman or
a feminist, a Tory, a lefty, woke or anti woke. Where arguments about these things sprout like weeds pejoratives about her are casually thrown around (18)

People who use the slur retard know exactly who they mean -Learning disabled people.

It isn’t satire or taking down a powerful authoritarian elite.

It’s used on social media knowingly & casually whilst also angrily defended as not meaning what it obviously does mean. (17)

I don’t police language, I don’t call for a ban but I also don’t fall into a trap of thinking that some slurs are ok because I do care about any stigma that my using slurs will help to promote.

People who use the slur retard know exactly who they mean -Learning disabled people. (16)

This demographic has no political leaders, no voting power, no voice, no platform and often no friends.

Sometimes their only advocates are their families and so, demeaning and ridiculing, shaming and hating on parent carers like me is an easy win. (15)

Here is where the problem lies.

The same people who, like me,never deploy a gay slur pejoratively, have no problem laughing at the most defenceless demographic there is in the world today. (14)

Today learning disabled people are still locked up in hospitals for decades,given anti-psychotic drugs when there is no clinical need,held in prone restraint(the restraint which killed George Floyd)& if they fight back placed in isolation rooms & given their meals through a hatch in the door. (13)

At the height of the pandemic 6 out of ten disabled people who died were learning disabled.

Pre-vaccine if you were learning disabled and aged between 18-34 you were 30x more likely to died of covid & 9x at any other age. (12)

Life expectancy for learning disabled people in the U.K :
Male 22 yrs less.
Female 26 yrs less.
6 out of 10 learning disabled people die under the age of 65.
From 2018-2021 alone 761 learning disabled kids & 11,138 adults died many from avoidable causes. (11)

I also want no part of building stigma against learning disabled people. (10)

Whilst of course it’s entirely within the bounds of free speech to use gay as a pejorative & a slur , I’d never choose that because using it is increases stigma against LGB people and I want no part of that. (9)

Sexuality is one of the protected characteristics for a reason because discrimination against gay men in particular & lesbians was horrific. There are still countries in the world where being gay is illegal. (8)

There’s a seasonal fuss made every year by some who are very angry that “Fairytale of New York” gets airtime because of a perceived use of a slur. Which of course it isn’t doing. (7)

In doing so it’s stigmatising an entire demographic of people based on a characteristic they can’t help and didn’t choose.
Everyone knows what using gay as a slur means-everyone. (6)

It’s not being used at a gay man or lesbian, it doesn’t need to be.
It’s being used to describe something or someone that is doing or saying something that is disapproved of or perceived as stupid or rubbish or wrong. (5)

Gay.

If you use this word to mean ignorant or foolish or awful or any of the other myriad uses of retard, then immediately people like me, call it out. (4)