Coming Out in an age of Social Media

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Hello everybody

I have not yet fully taken part in Wrong Planet, despite wanting to. There are member's blogs, getting to know each other, post a picture of the real you, and even regular posts with issues to discuss, etc. The problem for me was the advice on the intro pages being dire: do not give out personal information, people can find you with Google searches, connect you to Real Life, etc. It is also clear that many people have had horrendous experiences coming out about having autism.

However, I am fairly (but not completely) open about it in Real Life and feel that hiding is limiting me. Not only that, but in the ages of social media, given my postings on the subject even as a third party in autism matters, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to find via the internet that I have autism.

For example, many of you will recognise my "tone of voice" and other personal details from other forums; though I can use my real name on those, because they are closed forums. Gradually, I expect that more and more people will find out over time.

In the UK we have very strict equality/diversity/anti-discrimination laws; in particular the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Order Act 1986 (as amended over the last few years). There are draconian penalties for abuse of vulnerable persons, both civil and criminal.

While not all vulnerable people have the confidence to use the resources available to them, I am a bit "Judge Dredd" when it comes to Law and Order and certainly would use the full weight of the Law if I encountered discrimination.

So my approach is that I am not blatantly shouting it from the rooftops, but nor is it a state secret; if somebody finds out, they find out. If they don't like it, that's their problem.

So for websites such as Wrong Planet, I see no reason not to be more open about personal information, such as photos I have posted elsewhere, a picture of the real me (when I can find a decent one), things I do for a living, hobbies and so on; though I would probably stop short of posting my real name in plain text to begin with.

Does anybody from the UK* (or who has lived there for long time) have any suggestions or comments before I decide how I am going to approach this?

*Please note I am asking for a UK-orientated view on this for a reason; I appreciate there are countries where nobody in their right mind would come out about autism; but I don't live in one of them and have no intention of working or living abroad.

I'm fairly open as well, I'll often talk about autism in the first person.

Having said that, I wouldn't want to connect my WP profile with my real life more than it has to be. On a simple level, I wouldn't want my friends necessarily knowing everything I feel I can talk about with other autistic people. Then there are occasions when I've said compromising personal things, which are OK to say to strangers but I wouldn't want people knowing if they knew me. Finally, and perhaps most seriously, over the past 4 years I've said an awful lot of stuff, much of which might have been naive, insensitive, or downright nasty. I wouldn't want someone in the future to be able to trawl through the things I said when I was 15 (or even 18) and find that I once advocated for autistic separatism or not extending the lives of the terminally ill or systematically exterminating smokers. I don't mind too much that The_Walrus said something embarrassing, but if someone manages to link me to my account when I apply for a job, things could potentially get tricky.