Author: Robin
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Amplifying Disabled Parents’ Voices: The White House Forum and Beyond
In thirty-five states (and the District of Columbia), children can’t trust that their healthy, happy family will be able to stay together if one or both of their parents is disabled. That means that in almost three quarters of the U.S. the law allows for children to be removed from their parents based on parental…
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Four Things Healthcare Providers Need to Know About Sexuality and Disability
It just feels like one more thing my illness is taking away from me. A friend who has several chronic illnesses had just finished telling me how she has to change her sexual practices for a while. She has a primary sexual and romantic partner, and several “friends with benefits” she has sex with occasionally.…
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Ready, Sexy, Able: February and March Round-up
News and views on sex and disability for February and March. Here at Ready, Sexy, Able Sexual Abuse, Sexual Rights, and Intellectual Disability: A Messy Political Stew Sexual abuse policies at institutions for people with disabilities don’t usually make it into the news, so when they do, that is news. Here, I unpacked what was…
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Sexual Abuse, Sexual Rights, and Intellectual Disability: A Messy Political Stew
It’s not every day that policy changes around sexual abuse reporting at an agency for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities are covered in that agency’s local newspaper. What’s not unusual is the amount of stuff there is to unpack around how disabled people’s bodies, sexualities, even our very lives are treated. You can double…
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Illness and Disability? They get along with sexuality just fine.
The last day of February is Rare Disease Day. Today I’m thinking about what I’ve learned from chronically ill friends and acquaintances, about the ways most chroniclly ill people’s lives continue, through all the treatments, all the doctor appointments, the sometimes daily medical tests, the waiting, the occasional or constant threat to life or current…
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Sexual Health And Disability: Are we afraid to talk about it?
There’s something we’re not talking about. There’s something the news articles and personal essays, the films and poetry, the sexy photo spreads and opinion pieces about sex and disability are leaving out – safer sex and sexual health. To be fair, most mainstream discussions of sex and sexuality aren’t talking about sexual health either, at…
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Sexuality Attitudes, Disability Myths, and Shopping For Sex Toys
Of the five sex toy stores I’ve personally visited over the past 15 years, only one had a flat entrance. Of those five, only three had employees who didn’t respond to me as a visibly disabled person with obvious anxiety, and, in one case, hostility. — Sex toys – It’s one of the first things…
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Ready, Sexy, Able: January Round-Up
Sex and Disability Portugal’s Plural&Singular Publishes Report on Sex and Affection it’s impressive that disability sports magazines are conducting and reporting on sex and disability research. Better still, the Portugese study investigated the experiences of both people with intellectual disabilities and people with physical disabilities. Earlier this month, Portugal’s disability sport magazine Plural&Singular published a…
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Ready, Sexy, Able Voices: Interview With Poet and Activist Maria Palacios
Maria R. Palacios is a poet, author, spoken word performer, motivational speaker, social change advocate, disability rights activist, and workshop facilitator. I met Maria and saw her perform at the Breaking silences Sex and Disability Conference. IN person, Maria is very much like her poetry – warm, funny, honest, and sassy. Maria graciously agreed to…
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2015: The year sex and disability voices were louder and prouder than ever.
2015 really does feel like it was a turning point – no, a launching pad – for sex and disability conversations. Here’s just a small sampling: Mainstream media outlets approached sex and disability in ways they rarely have before, including coverage from the CBC, Cosmo, The atlantic, and The Sydney Morning Herald. Toronto saw its…