Ryan O’Connell and “Special” are just that

Ryan O’Connell stars in his story “Special.” Credit: @ryanoconn

I finally figured out how to get the Apple TV wired, and now I’ve become a Netflix user.

I’ve concentrated on gay-themed movies and shows, and one that I found is a must-see is “Special,” by a guy named Ryan O’Connell. He’s a gay man with a disability from cerebral palsy.

I’ve read about him and he talks about how this story came to be. It’s a great story. The way it's written is just beautiful because there are parts of it that are moving and sad, but also parts that are very, very funny.

But the other thing is his take on the issue of LGBT people with disabilities. We often overlook that. People are marginalized because they are not young, beautiful, perfect.

In the show, Ryan starts out kind of awkward, socially and physically. He actually presents himself as someone who has a disability as a result of being hit by a car, which he was, and not the result of cerebral palsy at birth. Imagine having to come out as a disabled person and a gay man and feeling the need to disguise your disability as something else.

He felt the disability as a result of car accident was more acceptable than being born with a disability. Think about the stigma, discrimination, marginalization.

It reminded me of the early days of HIV. There was a joke that went around and it was built around the groups that began with the letter H. Homosexuals, hemophiliacs and Haitians. One of the “jokes” that I heard many times that if you had AIDS, it was more forgivable to try and convince your parents you were Haitian than tell them you were homosexual. What a sick joke. But it speaks to that kind of hierarchy of stigmatization — that some things are more acceptable.

So, he opens up this whole discussion of LGBT people with disabilities – marginalization within a marginalized group. Wow. Don’t we have work to do.