Disabled And Fighting For A Sex Life

This article is a thorough exploration of what sexuality for disabled people means. It starts off with a review of all the myths about the disabled’s sexuality and all the messed-up ways in which people related to it. To put it in short, through time they were stereotyped as either impotent; hypersexual — especially women; their disability was seen as a punishment for some kind of horrible sin they’d committed; and, last but not least, disabled people were not considered viable sexual partners because of their so-called reproductive un-fitness — people feared the offsprings would be “contaminated” with the disability.

“The eugenics movement, which started in the U.K., was taken up with enthusiasm in the U.S. By 1914 nearly two-thirds of U.S. states had made it illegal for 'feeble-minded' and 'insane' people to marry. The so-called 'Ugly Laws', first passed in the 1880s, prohibited the 'unsightly' from being seen on the street at all. Between 1907 and 1928, thousands of Americans were sterilised.”

However, things started to change in the US around the 1960s, when disabled war veterans started returning from Vietnam and they couldn’t be ignored anymore. The students also contributed to this new civil rights battle, challenging society’s views and actions regarding the disabled.

Further on in the article, you’ll read about numerous academics, activists and organizations and how they are trying to help disabled people enjoy their sexuality, the efforts they’re making to bring the issues of disability, love, sexuality on the public agenda, and there’s also a very interesting part about paying for sex and informed consent.