Source: BIgstock

As I pointed out several years ago, little people have never demanded that folks of normal height adopt a new descriptive term to define themselves as “not a dwarf.”

It’s generally true that the more phony one’s ailment, the more loud and obnoxious one will be about it. The woman with the “gluten allergy” will turn your pleasant lunch into a living hell. The guy with colon cancer will feel ashamed if his malady ruins a meal. Because the gluten harpy enjoys the bitching, enjoys the attention, whereas the colon cancer guy genuinely doesn’t want to be a nuisance. He doesn’t want his condition to define him.

So let’s circle back to the military. The army’s height requirements disqualify dwarfs and midgets. But surely a little person can fire a gun, no? I’ve seen 10-year-old girls who are expert shots; tiny hands can still pull a trigger. So why don’t we hear little people bitching like trannies about not being allowed to serve? I put that question to Cuquis Robledo, director of public relations for Little People of America (LPA), the nation’s largest advocacy organization for those of short stature. I asked her if she knew the general mood among little people regarding the military-service height requirements. “I have not really heard of anyone (in the little person community) who was thinking of joining the military but I’m sure people do talk about it,” she replied. While she believes that “anyone should be given a chance to be involved if they want to serve their country,” she added, “In terms of the height requirement, in my opinion, there are so many different ways to be involved in the military rather than being in direct combat.”

Her position? Little people should have every opportunity to serve their country, but not necessarily in combat.

Well, color me impressed. Instead of saying, “You have to change your standards to make me feel accepted,” Ms. Robledo is basically saying, “There are other ways we can serve.” This is the healthy antithesis of the tranny worldview. Indeed, this is a mindset that is very unique among minority groups these days. Normally, the cry is “Lower your physical requirements so we can serve! Lower your academic standards so we can attend! Lower your job requirements so we can be hired! Force yourself to find us attractive so our self-esteem isn’t hurt!” But now here comes a representative of little people saying, “Keep your standards; we’ll work around them if we want to.”

Damn refreshing in this day and age.

Transfolk love to hold their high suicide statistics over our heads (“Give us what we want or we’ll end it all!”). They should consider themselves fortunate that anyone’s actually keeping records. Even though little people outnumber trannies five to one, “there are no medical studies on suicide and depression rates among little people, but the anecdotal evidence is alarming.” That’s from a 2016 Hollywood Reporter piece, which also quotes LPA treasurer Thomas Hershey as saying, “We have plenty of doctors dedicated to orthopedic concerns, but we don’t have anyone in our pocket as far as mental health, which is insane.” A 2007 study in the American Journal of Medical Genetics found that mortality at all ages is higher for people with dwarfism compared with the general population…in some instances, ten times higher.

If little people, facing so many challenges, can learn to live their lives without becoming a massive pain in the ass to the rest of us, if they can realize that their happiness is not dependent on my vocabulary, or my sexual preference, or my beauty standards, or the requirements of our armed forces, then anyone else can too.

We can learn a big lesson from the little people.

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