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Relationships and Sex

These piece share open, insightful looks into the relationships and sexual experiences of the disability community.

A person with shoulder-length dark hair sitting at the end of a bed, pensively facing an open window.

Intimacy After Trauma: Navigating Re-Entry Into a Pandemic World

Content note: eating disorders, COVID-19, sexual abuse, sex, trauma How do you let someone love you when you’re afraid of yourself? I first asked myself this at age 17, anorexic and emotionally isolated by the fear of what my body…
Shadows of two people about to kiss, one hovering over the other's lips.

My ADHD Makes Me Better in Bed

ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder): it’s not just for kids anymore. (Nor has it ever been.) While the stereotypes of people who have ADHD as jittery, comically-unfocused young people – or, perhaps, stimulant-guzzling college students – are popular ones, two-thirds…
Photo of a person's hands holding a smartphone that has an online dating app opened

Navigating Dating, Disability, and Disclosure

I believe in trial and error, so for the past year, I have “tested” out various tactics to disclose my invisible disabilities to potential romantic partners. I went about my romantic life as normal–a date here and there when the…
The author and her husband, two smiling white individuals, hug each other in front of a lake. Sarah, who has straight, medium-length brown hair and is wearing a black and white floral dress, speaks into his ear. Her husband, who has wavy, close-cropped dark blonde hair, and is wearing a gray shirt and black suit jacket, bends his head, as if to listen.

Sundance TV’s “This Close” Strengthened My Marriage

“You have to learn to cue,” I gruffly tell my husband after backing our car into a spot outside my nephew’s birthday party at a noisy, monster-themed sports facility. I am referring to Cued Speech, a visual communication mode made…
Noor, a south Asian transmasculine person in a white lace dress and red cardigan, sits on a green walker in front of a fountain and a large area of tulips on a sunny day

You Are Not A Burden: On Disability, Dating, and Support Needs

Dating with a disability can be hard. As an autistic person with a physical disability, chronic pain, and a few mental health disabilities, I face a lot of drama when it comes to dating. Disability is baked into every …
A white woman with a brown ponytail covering her bare chest stares into a mirror.

It’s Time to Stop Desexualizing Disabled People

When I told my hearing ex-boyfriend that I was considering cochlear implant surgery, we were in bed in his college dorm room: an unwashed clearing in a muddle of strewn clothes, textbooks, and papers. As a deaf 19-year-old undergraduate woman…
Bethany is positioned with her back to a classroom background.

Deaf Access to Sex Ed with Bethany Gehman

Language barriers, inaccessible media, and ableist stigma continue to prevent Deaf youth from accessing both formal and informal opportunities for sex ed. Bethany Gehman shares her experience as a Deaf sex educator.…
Two neon signs in the shape of speech bubbles. One says yes, one says no.

Teaching “Yes Means Yes” Can Make Sex Education More Inclusive for the Disability Community

When I was 11, we learnt how to put a condom on a banana. Only one person per group had to demonstrate, and I shrank into the background while everyone else giggled. When I was 13, we learnt about reproduction…
a man pushes a woman's manual wheelchair, helping her towards a car with the door open

Here’s What Dr. Phil Got Wrong in His Episode on Interabled Relationships

I’ve spent a good portion of the last week thinking about a recent episode of Dr. Phil that featured an interabled couple and more ableist tropes than should ever be allowed in 2019. I watched the episode. I read articles…