I have decided that we are taught not to make fun of someone's disability in kindergarten and so anyone who makes an issue of my stutter is by definition an asshole too immature for adult society whose opinion I don't have to care about. Definitely makes life easier! And as far as "people will think I'm X..." honestly, this is one of the reasons I try to address the stutter explicitly in introductions these days. Basically, I decided that I want to get ahead of things and explain what's going on before they form their own opinions, which may be influenced by weird stereotypes and popular culture images of stuttering which I really don't want to engage with. So I have a spiel that goes something like "(As you might have noticed,) I have a speech disorder - I stutter. It's usually pretty mild but acts up sometimes. If you ever have problems understanding me, let me know and I'll be happy to repeat myself." It was terrifying the first time I did it, but the results are honestly pretty striking; people pretty much fall over themselves to assure you that of COURSE it's not a problem!!! and the tone of the conversation is often markedly warmer afterwards? I developed that script thinking that I want to come across as confident and in control, but I'm still a little bewildered at how incredibly positively many people seem to react to it.