On Being Hideous
By Rick Rader, MD, Editor-in-chief
“If you think something is ugly, look harder. Ugliness is just a failure of seeing.”
― Matt Haig, The Humans
For the past several years I have started my Wednesday mornings having coffee with Lonnie.
Lonnie is a 34-year-old guy with an intellectual disability. Orange Grove has been blessed with the opportunity to provide supports to Lonnie over the years. I emphasize “blessed” because over time we have seen him develop in areas where we have been able to diminish the level of support; one of the joys of working with individuals with cognitive disabilities is watching the list of “needs” get whittled down.
Lonnie comes to have coffee with me, and we try to figure out how to solve the world’s problems. In actuality Lonnie doesn’t have coffee, he prefers hot chocolate, but he refers to it as coffee; so, every Wednesday we have coffee together. Onlookers might be confused with the presence of mini marshmallows as two guys have coffee together.
This particular morning Lonnie starts with “Rick, I have a question; and can I ask you it?”
I nod as I watch him using his spoon to dunk the layer of marshmallows floating on top of his hot chocolate.
“My brother told me there’s a law that says that after a shower you can’t put back on your old socks and underwear; you have to use new ones; is it? Is it a law?”
I try to be the old sage that Lonnie thinks I am. “Well Lonnie, I don’t think it’s a law, but it is certainly a good idea.” We spend the rest of our time trying to understand the difference between a law and a good idea.
Lonnie explains that putting back on his old socks and underwear ensures that they will fit and that sometimes new socks don’t feel comfortable. He insists that he heard it’s a law and doesn’t want to be reported by his brother for breaking the law.
The thought of a Tennessee law that prohibits putting back on your old socks and underwear after taking a shower is absurd; but it pales compared to some actual laws that are still on the books. For instance, in Quitman, Georgia, it’s illegal to change the clothes on a storefront mannequin unless the shades are down. In New Orleans, Louisiana, it’s against the law to gargle in public. In South Bend, Indiana, it’s illegal for monkeys to smoke cigarettes. In Minnesota, women may face 30 days in jail for impersonating Santa Claus. In Marion, Oregon, ministers are forbidden from eating garlic or onions before delivering a sermon. In Illinois it’s a crime to possess more than $600 worth of salamanders. At restaurants in Memphis, Tennessee, all pie must be eaten on the premises, as it is illegal to take unfinished pie home.
One doesn’t have to go far to run into laws that dictate, mandate, compel, prohibit or demand that we (the public) behave in a certain way. Laws have been on the “books” since the first code of laws was enacted by Urukagina, King of Lagash in 2350 BCE. The “Oath Act of 1789,” also known as the oldest law in America, is still administered to federal officials during their searing-in ceremony. We sure do love laws and lawmaking in America. Congress has enacted approximately 200-600 statues during each of its 115 biennial terms so that more than 30,000 statutes have been enacted since 1789. In the United States, the law is derived from five sources: constitutional law, statutory law, treaties, administrative regulations, and the common law. With such a far reaching and complex system it’s no surprise that we have passed laws that have contributed to the stigmatization, marginalization and ostracization of people with disabilities, people who present and appear different and people who might be difficult to understand.
And while it might seem like something our of a Saturday Night Live comedy skit let’s look at America’s “Ugly Laws.” In “The Ugly Laws,” the definitive research from Susan M. Schweik we learn that “Ugly laws refer to legislation that existed across the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. Although the term “ugly laws” wasn’t coined until 1975, according to the Eugenics Archive, laws that targeted peoples’ appearance were on the books as early as the 1860s. The very first ugly law was created on July 9, 1867, in San Francisco. In addition to outlawing “street begging,” Order No. 873 also mandated that “any person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated, or in any way deformed so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object, or an improper person […] shall not therein or thereon expose himself or herself to public view.” Many other cities passed similar laws including New Orleans (1879), Chicago in 1881 and Reno in 1905. The penalty for violating an ugly law including a $25 fine (about $500 today) and faced 25 days in jail. Of particular interest is that the ugly laws did not restrict performances of people with disabilities for the purpose of entertainment, but rather restricted people with disabilities from mingling with the public.
The beginning of the end of the Ugly Laws began after World War 1. There were so many combat veterans returning to America with horrendous physical and mental disabilities that it became difficult to discriminate against people as easily as before. In an unusual paradox the cruelties of war helped initiate the disability rights movement by abolishing the Ugly Laws.
“I might argue that The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) could be referred to as “The Beauty Law” since it provided federal civil rights protection to those who mental or physical disabilities.”
Lonnie decided to compromise and agreed to the clean underwear, thus thinking he was only breaking half of the law.