OK, that is an ominous and foreboding title — “cochlear implant discrimination.” Scary. Luckily, this is not an ominous and foreboding post. In fact, this is a funny post (I think). I am still trying to decide. This all happened a couple of days ago, and now that CochlearWorld.com is back on the air, I thought I’d share it with you and see what others think. Maybe you can help me by leaving a comment and tell me what you think.
The other day, I saw a message from Paula Rosenthal on CICircle. She wrote:
I recently found some groups of parents with kids with hearing loss over at [website omitted]. It seems quite a few are coming in with newly diagnosed children and are looking for support. These boards don’t seem very active so I thought I’d drop you all the links if you are interested in visiting and offering your experiences. Let me know what you think.
~ Paula
I thought it was cool of Paula to point this out — because I had never even heard of the site she found. (As an aside, you should check out Paula’s great site — HearingExchange.com if you have not already). You probably noticed that I’ve omitted the name of the website referenced in Paula’s message because I am not trying to pick a fight with that site. Also, I think that the forum that Paula referenced is a good helpful site, and I don’t want to take away from that.
Well, I was working that day, but I took a look anyway. After all, if Paula took the time to mention it, I figured it was worth my time. Still, I was in a pretty big hurry.
Sure enough, there was a parent over there going through something similar to what I went through seven years ago. As on most sites, to post you must register. So, I quickly registered on the site and left a nice message of encouragement based on my personal cochlear implant parenting experiences with Alley. About 20 minutes later, I got this message:
Hi, Mark:
Your [site omitted] account has been canceled because the site is ONLY for moms and moms-to-be. If you’re a dad, we recommend a site like [second gender neutral site omitted] (no relation).
We appreciate your cooperation.
The [site omitted team] Team
Now, at first I was a little miffed. After all, my opinion should count too. I’m a man, and we have rights! I thought about writing Barack Obama or somebody and demanding justice! I knew I should have sent that tax deductible donation to the ACLU this year (rats!). The funny thing is that I am a manager at a fortune 500 company that proudly wins awards from Working Mother’s Mag and others every year. I even help my wife fold laundry and change diapers. I have a collection of great quiche recipes (I’ll save those for another post).
After 30 seconds of indignant outrage, I decided to let it go. The moms on CICircle reassured me that Dads are people too. So, I guess I am over it — but I thought you might enjoy the story. As for me, I’m off to have some chamomile tea. 
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