LGBT with disabilities -- how do you fare in the dating world?

I've only really started coming out in the last few weeks, so my experience is somewhat limited. But what I will say is this - you may not get to date as many people as a non-disabled person and many people will turn you down just due to your disability, however, these people are just shallow and generally can't hold 'normal' relationships together, so really by being rejected you're saving yourself a lot of hassle. So when someone does come along, it's much more likely you'll both work out (*hug*)

 

I have a learning disability (auditory processing). To be perfectly honest, I only really started having serious problems with it once I moved away from home and was in the workforce. School was a pain in the ass.

I think the big thing that helped was being upfront about it. It wasn't so much telling people as soon as they met them but if they were getting frustrated after me not being able to understand them, I'd usually explain what my deal was. Most people are usually alright once they know I'm not trying to be an asshat.

I started wearing musician's filters to deal with background noise and train my ears. Background noise makes it really, really hard for me to have a basic conversation. Hell, sometimes I'd see people's mouths moving but I'd either hear complete gibberish or I wouldn't hear anything at all.

When it comes to the phone, would you be able to convince your friends to text you? Most people are pretty happy to oblige. You can either tell them you have a speech disorder or that hearing's pretty hard for you. Whichever works.

Now with a partner, you usually do have to figure out how to compromise. I'm pretty sensitive to noise because of my auditory processing issues so even minimal background noise (like on the level of a fan) makes it hard for me to fall asleep. So I sometimes sleep with foam earplugs in, which made a huge difference.

I'm not really sure if you've ever sought out help for your stutter but maybe think about joining an online group? Sites like Facebook can be an awesome place to find people going through what you're dealing with. I'm in a few groups for auditory processing and similar disorders (my learning disability's a close cousin to dyslexia and I do have some reading and word problems too) and we post resources, tips, etc. A similar group can give you some place of understanding and give you a few resources to boot.