Discrimination? Bias?

Up to now I was fairly open about my condition but today's skirmish may change my mind about my privacy.
I have divulged my mental condition on one of the meetup groups and the response and results were rather socking. After I have disclosed of my illness the person who organizes the meetup group wanted NOTHING to do with me , she gave me dismissing spiel and told me to leave the group. Mind you, this is a business type of a meetup group and this would have been a business arrangement not a social one. I figured that certain people are having a fear or bias against us but I never experienced it first hand.

I hate that happened to you. Did she say why?

Well no, but I am sure if not 100-percent but partially my condition have played a role. I am over this now. I am sure others here on this forum had worse. But I am not going to disclose my illness to ANYBODY from now on. Live and learn.
Thanks for the reply. Love and Peace of mind!

Seems like it'd be more of a risk to divulge your condition to a business group than a social group. Hope you can find some groups where you can be open if you want. At least you have this forum!

This discrimination of mental illness happens all the time and it is the reason I hate people. If someone has a tumor on their brain, people can accept that and understand it without judging the person or making them feel like it is their fault. WHY can't it be the same with mental illness?
Here is the definition, plain and simple:
I have a disorder(no matter what the actual mental illness is) that affects the way my brain works so it also affects the way I behave at times.

Anyone who can't understand that but can understand any other physical disease is just stupid, I'm sorry.

What kind of buisness meeting is it? Is there someone above her you can report it to? She shouldn't be allowed to discriminate against you because of a disability. Someday, at least in the world I want to live in, we won't have to keep being silent. It's hard for me to hide my issues, then when someone notices, I'm labeled as "Weird", and I'm not allowed to explain otherwise. Because according to mainstream society, mental illness is a choice. What a disgusting society we live in.

I'm sorry you had to go through that.

If all you did was share that you have an illness, and she then kicked you out of the group solely because of this revelation, this would definitely be discrimination.

If you shared the fact of your illness in some other context, it might be more complicated than that.

--Ceara1010

It was the second. I wanted to speak to the group about mental illness and spirituality, how they interact and mix. Her reception was very negative to this idea. I was told not to talk about that! Well, even after I offered to change the subject she objected to my picture(?). Finally I told her that since I would be a paying member, I saw no reason to change my picture. She told me to leave the group. (not a smart business person, if you ask me). She criticized an email of mine and said I was giving off a "negative vibe"! I personally suspect that she had issues that needed at least a therapist and as closet gays bash openly gay people, she fond her way to bash me. Yay...

question...was this online....if so online\the internet has not caught up with the laws of what people have to live by off line (in real time), for what ever reasons this person had unfortunately online its not called discrimination when a person running a meetup asks a member to leave the group, no matter what the reason.

my suggestion maybe you can find another meetup group that better fits you wanting to disclose to business people you have a mental disorder.

if this was in real time (not on the computer) yes if you can prove you went to a meeting where business people get together and you were asked to leave based on your mental disorder then its called discrimination.

suggestion... contact legal aid, civil rights department or the police, they will be able to tell you whether this is discrimination according to the laws of your location and tell you what you can do about it.

um no offense but I can see why they asked you to leave... you stated this is a ......business....meetup, not a mental health or religious meet up..

let me give you an example I am in a meet up group about building doll houses. someone once came on the meet up group and instead of talking about doll house's, miniature collecting, this person started talking about how her sex life and religion go together. what she was wanting to discuss (sex, LGBT and Buddhism) have nothing to do with collecting and building doll houses for adults. she was asked to leave the group. was this discrimination no, the group is about dollhouses not sex and religion. now if she had wanted to tell us how her sex life and religion ties in with doll houses and collecting miniatures for doll houses then she would be in the right meet up group.

another example here at psych central. this site is a mental health website. all the forums are based on mental health, mental illness and how things affect our mental illness\health.

but some discussions have been banned or limited like specific religions, active suicide and political debates. anyone who comes here for say the purpose of telling us how they plan on doing this that and the other thing and which ways are best for suicide, those posts are removed and Im guessing the person is told thats not allowed here and that there are many other places on the internet where they can get this need met.

maybe you can ask the person that runs the meet up what the group is about and the purpose of the group. that way you will know whether discussions/educating people on spiritual \religions\mental illness is allowed.

She was likely more uncomfortable with the talk about spirituality. That pushes the boundaries of business related discussion. Religion and business do not mix.

As for speaking about mental illness I think that would have to do with the nature of the talk and how that applied to business. For example, I have talked about Mental Illness in the workplace to businesses. My talks tend to be about establishing policies and standards regarding recognizing MI as a valid reason for leave, EAPs, etc.

Thank you all for the feedback.