ABDLs Under Attack?

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, infamous for his deficit-reduction efforts, has a new target: Stanley Thornton the adult baby. And Stanley is ready to fight... to the death.

You may remember Stanley from National Geographic's recent Taboo episode. You can read my blog entry on the subject here.

Read the article from New York Magazine here.

And from the Washington (DC) Times here.

It seems that Senator Coburn has written a letter to the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration suggesting that Stanley is perhaps collecting benefits improperly.

An excerpt:

"Given that Mr. Thornton is able to determine what is appropriate attire and actions in public, drive himself to complete errands, design and custom-make baby furniture to support a 350-pound adult and run an Internet support group, it is possible that he has been improperly collecting disability benefits for a period of time."

Eek!

Coburn is described as the Senate's top waste watcher, and issues with social security are a hot-button political issue right now.

Republicans would like nothing more than to take welfare benefits away from millions of Americans. Talk of requiring welfare recipients to take drug tests, for example, has come up year after year. It's spun by Democrats as being anti-minority and anti-immigrant, and has no chance of passing. In short, it's not politically correct.

But isn't it completely reasonable to take welfare away from anyone who, we assume, uses their welfare payments for feeding a drug habit? Shouldn't this be expanded to anyone convicted of selling drugs? Maybe other crimes, even?

Drug using, drug dealing welfare recipients are a powerful lobby, and the Republicans can't openly make these suggestions for fear of losing a powerful voting block.

And you sure as hell can't suggest taking social security from the elderly. They vote like crazy-ass motherfuckers.

Coburn's apparent new deficit-reduction target - adult babies - isn't so much of a gamble...

Stanley was not amused by the Washington Times' article, and wrote back, threatening suicide:

“You wanna test how damn serious I am about leaving this world, screw with my check that pays for this apartment and food. Try it. See how serious I am. I don’t care. I have no problem killing myself. Take away the last thing keeping me here, and see what happens. Next time you see me on the news, it will be me in a body bag.”

We hope that Stanley won't kill himself over the loss of his benefits, should it come to that. And, judging from what I've seen of Stanley, he will probably keep his benefits for life.

But should he? NY Magazine says it this way:

"[Coburn] has a point there. Just because Thornton enjoys playing with toys and pooping in a giant diaper all day, doesn't mean that taxpayers should have to support his bizarre lifestyle. On the other hand, you could certainly make the case that, despite the ability to run errands and build obese baby-man furniture, Thornton suffers from a mental disability that precludes him from holding a job."

Hmm...

I applaud anyone giving presenting the AB/DL community in a positive light their best shot. And, despite all of the forum bashing going on within our own community, there's not a lot from the video which I have a problem with. Two things, however, stuck out:

• Both Stanley and his caretaker receiving public assistance.
• Members of Stanley's website being as young as... 9.

I won't touch the age thing here, as I'm working on a future blog entry about age and AB/DL.

But I knew that the public assistance thing was going to be trouble.

I don't begrudge anyone public assistance who truly deserves it and I certainly won't try to make an armchair diagnosis of Stanley Thornton from clear across the USA.

But let's be straight up: anyone one of us who goes on a television show represents all of us. And we now have a whole nation envisioning adult babies as... well, Stanley.

I don't care if they picture us as Stanley's age, height, weight, race, gender, or sexual orientation.

But the stereotype that ABDLs can't function properly in society, whether due to health issues or mental health issues, is an insult to the hundreds of ABDL college students and employed ABs and DLs I've gotten to know from my years in the community.

I'm not sure if I would blame Stanley, entirely, for this.

But I've said it before, and I'll say it again: what each of us does singly has an effect on us collectively. (I'm talking to you, Stanley!)

We are a community, even if we don't always want to be.

Now we're a community that's attracted the attention of the United States Senate.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out...