In an issue between a person having a cleft palate and _anyone_, the disabled person is almost certainly at a major disadvantage.

 A corollary of “I don’t care if it [h-words] the Governor”: I take it that the fact that the h-word was chosen over the n-word means that the general public considers the pervasively stigmatized birth defect to be a worse identity than the nation’s most targeted race. Other factors:

1. There are virtually no governmental or social institutions for adult people having a cleft.
2. Absence of legal prior art: “There's case law out there regarding people commenting and gesturing against race and religion. But ... there's nothing out there regarding disabilities.”
3. Either actually, or publicly regarded as, not in a protected class. Few or no cases at law concerning our civil rights.
4. Roughly one in seven hundred. Not enough to have any influence on politics.
5. Related absence of community. If I am typical, many clefted people don’t know anyone like them. And the mainstream people they know may be less than reliable friends.
6. Little or no social or legal cost to slighting us, abusing us, or having an attitude of disrespect toward us.
7. Some, perhaps most, of us have families that simply will not talk about cleft palate. That, in itself, is probably a civil rights violation. Such families have a significant tendency to turn a blind eye when bigoted people get on our case. Families should be part of the solution. Often they are instead part of the problem.
8. People having a cleft are often blamed and scapegoated. Sometimes they even considered guilty for the way they were born.
9. If a person of color targets a clefted person of a different race, the person being targeted may be accused of racism if they defend themselves.
10. An example of some of these things: I was in a state office having my drivers license picture taken. The state employee said, “Cheese, whiskey, [h-word].” I know a person of color my age. If the state representative had done the same thing, substituting the [n-word], he could have gone home and talked to a bunch of people who were in the same boat. The situation of us clefted ones is utterly different - anyone we might mention it to would probably get a pained expression, as if we’d violated a social rule.

Summary: In an issue between a person having a cleft palate and anyone, the disabled person is almost certainly at a major disadvantage.