A man with a facial disfigurement says he was asked to leave a restaurant in south London because staff said he was “scaring the customers”.

Oliver Bromley has Neurofibromatosis Type 1, a genetic condition that causes non-cancerous tumours to grow on his nerves.

Speaking to the BBC, he said when he had gone to place an order at a restaurant in Camberwell, staff told him there had been complaints about him.

“It’s a horrible thing to happen. I took it very personally on the day,” he said.

    • @[email protected]
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      16 hours ago

      Maybe it’s just where I was raised, but I don’t see this at all in my day to day life in the US. Things have come a very long way.

      I’m sure there are still things that are shitty that I probably wouldn’t notice as I’m not in that position… But in general, most people here don’t seem to give a shit these days.

      To be clear, I’m not referring to classism. That still exists to a degree, though it’s mostly been supplanted by racism.

      • ObliviousEnlightenment
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        6 hours ago

        We have out problems, but were actually really good about ableism, so silver lining. Still feel for that guy though, hope he gets all the good things he deserves

      • @TriflingToad
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        413 hours ago

        I see people with prosthetic legs all the time at my work (grocery store) and I think nothing more of it than “that guy could do an absolutely dope robot costume for Halloween”

        I did see someone with double prosthetic legs and that was cool.

        • @[email protected]
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          37 hours ago

          As a guy with a prosthetic leg that walks in grocery stores. Yes, we can do awesome costumes. Yes, a lot of horrific discrimination still happens in the US to non-abled bodied and non-neurotypical peoples.

    • @SkunkWorkz
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      1219 hours ago

      To some degree. Never heard of handicapped kids being excluded from school photos in my country though.

      • @linearchaos
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        17 hours ago

        And if you were asked to leave in the US because of a facial disfigurement you could fully expect to have a business closing lawsuit won against you in no time at all. Wa are as litigious AF for better or worse, usually worse.

        • @[email protected]
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          38 hours ago

          The USA and England both have comparable human rights legislation. This is a slam dunk case for a human rights case.

      • @[email protected]
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        117 hours ago

        Never heard of it. It’s difficult to know how much of the difference is the actual occurrence and how much is the reporting of it.

    • @Smoogs
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      18 hours ago

      Oddly enough Australia is one of the most accepting countries I’ve been in when it came to PWD. Elevators for every train platform and if one broke they fixed it straight away. They also didn’t exclude lower income people no where near as much as they do in the US, Canada or UK.

      That said, the way they treat women, First Nations and POC or just about anyone who isn’t australian leaves much room for improvement.