Serious Question- When Did A Midget Not Become A Midget?

So we’re in the car on the way to Friendlies last night and Snoop Maddie Mad brings up the subject of Leprechauns.  She asks if I ever saw a Leprechaun to which I replied- why yes I had.  Just last week in Playa Del Carmen they had this Mexican Midget  dressed up like a leprechaun who was paid to corral patrons into the bar.

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I was immediately interrupted by someone I may or may not be related to through marriage telling me that I shouldn’t say that word.  To which I replied, “When did it become inappropriate to say Leprechaun?”

I was informed that we don’t call Midgets Midgets any longer, they are called “little people”  Wait, what?

When did the term Midget become a bad word?  Like when we grew up didn’t we always call midgets midgets?

I seriously never knew it was considered a slight to call a midget a midget.   Does a midget not know they are a midget any more?  Do they look in the mirror and not know they are a midget?  Or is it just the word midget recently become taboo or something.  If I’ve ever offended a midget in the past by calling them a midget and they considered it a bad term I guess I’d apologize but don’t you think it’s a much more accurate term for a small person that grows old but stays really short?

Calling someone a little person isn’t really all that descriptive is it?  For example my Snoop Maddie Mad is a little person but she’s not a midget (at least not that I can tell yet).  So that “little people” description is far less descriptive than the word midget because there’s no mistaking what you’re talking about when you use the word midget, right?

Is the term Midget off the table nowadays and if so is this a new development?

Little Person vs Midget What Do You Think?