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This is my child and 'that's so gay'

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inappropriatelyemployed · 18/11/2013 21:20

Great to see MNHQ involved in both campaigns (Stonewall campaign here but I am not sure why they can't be linked in terms of using offensive language.

There are many heated debates on the use of disablist language here, yet this has not been part of the 'This is my child' campaign - why?

The Stonewall release even says:

"It's often having that chat with the student and explaining to them that it shouldn't be used and equating it with words of race or language of disability that they might use that they know is unacceptable."

Yet, do people know that disablist language is unacceptable? I really think they don't and that the use of disablist language on tv and amongst mainstream figures is at least as prevalent and apparently 'acceptable' as homophobic language (if not more so). It seems de rigeur for some so-called 'comedians'.

Why the difference in approach? Is it because disabled children is all about 'children in need' and cuddly, pitiable disabled kiddies who need to be understood?

We don't need to persuade anyone of our children's rights to be heard and to live free of disablist language and discrimination.

We need to demand their rights.

Don't get me wrong: no form of discrimination is more or less acceptable than the other but why the difference in approach?

No one is saying 'this is my gay son' with lots of cuddly photos and pleas for acceptance are they? And their is a reason for that.

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MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 20/11/2013 16:51

Hello

Right. Obviously we're really sorry to see that lots of you feel let down here.

We did 'Get over it' because was an issue that had been raised a fair bit, and when we checked in with the boards (as we always do) it had pretty unanimous support.

We were really keen to do TIMC and do a good job on it because we know and try to understand how important the issues are to our users. But as passionate as we are about it, it obviously doesn't mean we can't do anything else on the charity or campaigning front.

So far as TIMC itself is concerned, the week of activity was focused on raising awareness and challenging perceptions, and we think - thanks in large part to all the SN posters who engaged with it - we did start to do that. As well as the press, we did some pretty intensive social media, lots of site activity, and sent a mail about it to all our email subscribers (which we don't do often - and are not doing for the current campaign with Stonewall). To date TIMC has been our most shared campaign on social media, which is exactly the kind of way we can start trying to change perceptions.

Does that mean we can't do more? No. We may well need a brain storming session for 2014. We've made the Children and Families Bill a priority for the rest of the year and are doing a targetted webchat on that soon, with some follow up if something concrete emerges from posters' responses, but it would be good to have a wider, engaging-with-whole site type of activity in the spring.

Of course TIMC is a MNHQ campaign, in collaboration with our users, but that doesn't mean that you can't encourage us to do more, or organise and develop your own campaigns around specific events.

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 20/11/2013 17:30

@lougle

Oh I see...you see, you didn't say 'week of activity' when you were asking for our input. You said, and I quote:

"We were thinking about something along the lines of our We Believe You campaign on rape myths; that is to say, an ongoing awareness-raising project aimed at the general public, rather than a short-term campaign with specific policy requests attached. We would be thinking about pages on Mumsnet itself featuring the experiences of our posters, activity on our Bloggers Network, ye olde Twitter hashtagge, and any press coverage we can grab."

If posters had known that it was only going to be a week-long campaign, they may not have been so willing to give their energy to sharing experiences and finding photos.

In fact, I've just checked through 5 threads about TIMC and not one of them mentions an intention to only carry out a 'week of activity'.

It's really not (and never was) only about a week of activity - or we wouldn't be talking about 2014!

The intensive bit at the beginning was the launch week. (The same as what you're seeing this week with Stonewall).

MNHQ

RowanMumsnet · 20/11/2013 17:39

Really sorry if it came across as splitting hairs - was trying to correct what seemed like a miscommunication. Probably one that we're responsible for - intensive launch weeks are par for the course in campaigns. We probably forget that not all of this is apparent from an external perspective.

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