Tonight I was out in town with Ruth and Catherine who both have Tourettes. At the first pub we went to we were ID’d, not to prove our ages but to prove we had Tourettes.

The bar manager approached us while we were waiting to be served and stood in front of us for a long time, staring at us. Eventually he managed to say, “I need to ask …” but stumbled over his words, giggling nervously. Then he got it out, “I have to ask, have you got a real condition or are you taking the piss?”

We explained we have Tourettes and he replied, “I’m sorry, but I have to think of my other customers, do you have proof?” We do all have ID cards that confirm we have Tourettes. He looked at Ruth’s first, then studied mine for a long time. And finally, despite having seen both Ruth’s, and mine, he still insisted on seeing Catherine’s.

He agreed to serve us but said, “You need to keep it down.” We explained that it doesn’t really work like that but he just repeated, ‘You’re going to offend my customers.’ We pointed out that we were his customers and that he was offending us.