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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The movie describes how poor his mental health already was and past suicide attempts. And now he has been humiliated on a global stage and people expect him to parade in public with a Scarlet A and get on his knees and grovel for forgiveness in the face of hate being directed at him.

Likey his team have secluded him away to try to keep him alive and well, a bigger focus for them than insisting he meet every individuals needs for the apology they want from him. [/quote]

That sort of situation was a no win situation for him.  If he didn't attend, he would feel like he was missing out on yet another thing due to his disability. If he did attend, it was very obviously going to go something like this.  BAFTA made a massive mistake by airing his vocal outburts on TV.  It was nothing short of cruel, to both him and to the people who were on stage when it happened. And honestly?  Some situations aren't suited for all people.  I have panic attacks on airplanes, so you know what, I don't travel on airplanes. I could, if I had to- and on rare occasions, I have done just that- but it's highly unpleasant for me and I have nightmares about it both before and after.  Maybe this person's disability didn't make the evening highly unpleasant for himself, but he made it highly unpleasant for the other honored guests, and maybe he should have just declined the invitation. Is it fair?  No.  It is incredibly unfair. But sometimes, things are incredibly unfair. It's also unfair that my neighbor's son has a recurrent brain tumor and less than 6 months to live.  It's unfair for him that sitting in the audience during that large public ceremony wasn't a good idea, but, it wasn't. [/quote]

The BAFTAs would probably also have gotten a lot of backlash if they hadn't invited him. The movie is a big hit and is based on his life story and his disability and the stigma and struggle he has had and how disruptive it has been to every aspect of his life - if they had said, no we didn't invite him as his disability (that the movie about) could disrupt others and so we didn't want him here - I doubt that would have gone over very well. Excluding him from that event solely due to his disability would not have been a good look.[/quote]

In a perfect world, they absolutely would have invited him, and he would have thanked them for their kind invitation, and declined, with something along the lines of "I've learned over the years that attending something like this, where my tics will be loudly disruptive during a speech or presentation, just causes me undue stress and feelings of guilt and embarrassment, even when everyone is understanding and kind.  Sticking to smaller, (and certainly untelevised!) gatherings is what keeps my mental health in a good place.  But truly, thank you for the invitation."  And then maybe they'd follow up with assurances that he would be welcome, and offer to have him come, and mingle before and after the ceremony, but watch the actual ceremony on a screen from the lobby (out of earshot from the speakers on stage), instead of in the general audience, if that would make him feel less anxious.  There, I just solved the problem for next time![/quote]

Except part of the reason for the movie was to try and break down stigma and ignorance and decrease the exclusion of people with disabilities so it kind of seems really wrong for the movie to be making money and profiting onthat theme but the guy who is actually living it can't be accepted. I think the issue was more that there should have been more education and notification given to the guests and attendees and presenters and use it as a way of increasing awareness rather than using it as a way to further stigmatize and exclude him. His coprolalia based on what is in the movie has a wide range of socially inappropriate comments - there really isn't anyone who is 'safe' if he is seen as a bad person and people take it personally, he is going to offend everyone. The education they do in the movie is about ignoring it as any reaction tends to make it worse. [/quote]

I stand by my opinion that putting the burden of ignoring it on people who are also experiencing a major professional achievement, on television, while screams of "F*** YOU!!" are being directed at them (by someone who wishes he were not screaming it, obviously) is unreasonable.  In a grocery store, sure.  On a bus?  Sure.  But if I'm trying to take the SAT and the person next to me is screaming the N word over and over, that's not fair to me, and no, I'm not going to accept that I just have to ignore it and bomb the test because inclusion is important.  Do you see the difference?  I am positive he doesn't mean to offend anyone or cause any harm.  I am positive that the world needs to learn to be inclusive of people with coprolalia, when they're aware that someone has that disorder and are given a heads up.  I'm also positive that people should not be told they need to just ignore it and accept it when it's being loudly directed at them, on an international stage, at the pinnacle of their career, accepting an award.  [/quote]

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