I came out to my college class today

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I'm in a class on disabilities and we were reading a text on the social model of disability and disabled culture. I raised my hand and said that this reminded me of the debates in the Autism community on having a "culture" and the social model of disability or the medical model.

I wonder if my contribution seemed superfluous to my classmates or not. I took the class because I wanted to talk about being on the spectrum, but I didn't raise any new insights. Maybe they thought I was oversharing and this'll backfire on me. :T

Do you think you could talk it over with the instructor? Perhaps you could present your perspective as part of the lessons, or at least be allowed to explain your perspective more thoroughly.

I don't know. I worry about how I was perceived in the moment.

I don't blame you. Maybe just ask, "How do you think the others reacted to what I said?", and then maybe a short explanation as to why you would need to ask.

I dunno ... it's been a few decades since I was in college. Attitudes may have changed since then.

As Fnord had suggested before, my advice would be to talk to the instructor to explain your input in the class. The instructor may bring up the subject again with your information in mind. It is natural to worry about what your classmates think of you. I would not worry about it. If they ask you why you brought it up in class, use that as an opportunity to open a discussion with them.

I have this difficulty in life right now... I say something to hint at something very important, and if the person doesn't open their arms wide and declare PLEASE TELL ME MORE! I let it drop. Ummm, they never do, so I am constantly dropping important issues. I had a conversation yesterday and did that twice - kept the controversial thought to myself. Well, kudos to us for speaking up, having the conversations, and maybe with practice we'll say more. It's emotional regulation for me --- I feel strongly about the topic --- I feel myself getting worked up so shutdown. Afraid how I would respond to disagreement. So, for me, finding ways to quickly calm and continue... and allowing others to disagree and speaking my piece regardless. And in another life I may even ask them what they think! Gasp!

I would say just try and not overthink it too much and look on the bright side. Maybe you raised awareness that you shouldn't be ashamed of being on the spectrum. Being confident and telling someone of being on the spectrum should bring a lot of thinking into that class, maybe someone else has a disability in the same class as you and you raised there confidence! They probably felt alone before you announced it.

What i'm trying to say is look at it positively, if you didn't get a discussion out of it then maybe you got a what i call a "secret reaction" out of it.