Competitive comparisons between [marginalized medical condition] and ["mainstream" medical condition] never serve either well, and here's why:

"Mainstream" conditions are usually ones that nondisabled ppl fear could strike them down at any moment.

Meanwhile, marginalized conditions are those which nondisabled ppl believe result from a preexisting character flaw.

Therefore, when we compare [marginalized condition] to [mainstream condition], nondisabled people don't understand it as "[marginalized condition] is an urgent problem necessitating research, resources, and care."

They understand it as "well, sucks to be that person. All the more reason for them to deal with their shit and 'get better'."

To nondisabled people, it's an apples-to-oranges comparison! It does not push back against dominant ableist logics.

The ableist value judgements remain in place, and I think that's one reason why employing these comparisons is so tempting... Yes, the comparisons usually mean to illustrate the severity of impairments associated with [marginalized condition], but I wonder:

Having internalized these same ableist logics, are we not also perhaps attempting to elevate the status of [marginalized condition] to that of ["mainstream" condition] -- insofar as the latter is a "worthy", "unstigmatized", and "blameless" condition.

Also we need to be careful about how these comparisons misrepresent the actual realities of living with both marginalized and "mainstream" conditions. The comprehensive experiences of living with these conditions are too often oversimplified in order to make them comparable.

And while I understand that sometimes these comparisons help folks with marginalized conditions to feel validated -- "disabled enough" to embrace disability identity -- a competitive framing does not undermine the system that sows such doubts in the first place.

Moreover, it risks exiling others who also have a claim to disability identity! And frankly we need everyone -- together, refusing to be placed at odds with one another -- in order to collectively push back against these manufactured divisions that do not serve us.

We can absolutely just refuse to compete with one another. You're valid, valued, and disabled enough. Your condition matters. You are owed accessible, reliable, knowledgeable care on your own terms. We all are.