I never said the whole Deaf thing is easy.

Granted, if you know ASL... it's a foot in the door and usually that's enough for me, however the mindset they carry is what turn me off from certain people.
Consider this. I am accepted as culturally Deaf in most communities (barring those that like to cite bloodlines); sometimes Hard-of-Hearing, depending on the group. One of my immediate relative and two of my distant relatives are considered as culturally Deaf-- despite the fact they're fully hearing and are not CODAs. The other immediate family members
are not considered as culturally Deaf. I have three distant deaf relatives-- they
are not considered as culturally Deaf. Three interpreters I know are considered as culturally Deaf; the
rest are not-- two of those "culturally Deaf" interpreters are not CODAs, however the third one is.
You follow me so far?
Here's the mindbender... a late-deaf who is taking ASL Level 1 is considered as culturally Deaf, with no deaf relatives, however
none of the other "late-deaf" taking the same course in the same class are treated the same.
Now I will let you think about those scenarios.