Reclaiming the sexual rights of LGBTQ people with attendant care dependent mobility impairments

Abstract

In this chapter, Gallo-Silver, Bimbi, and Rembis utilize a combination of literature review and secondary data analysis to explore the sexual experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) people with mobility impairments who rely on attendant care services usually provided by paid staff or family members in their homes. LGBTQ people with mobility impairments have received little attention both from society and in the literature. The paternalistic and segregating social service/rehabilitation communities continue the pre-Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) sexual disenfranchisement of people with disabilities without partners who are LGBTQ. Constraints on the sexual expression of people with mobility impairments continue to exist in many chronic care facilities, nursing homes, some group homes, and in more "traditional" familial and household settings. We identify the salient barriers of ableist and heterosexist attitudes to the human right to sexual expression. We give voice to those LGBTQ people who have successfully negotiated interdependent sex lives facilitated by both paid and family caregivers. Telling the stories of the sexual experiences of LGBTQ people with disabilities opens up an important practical and theoretical space that builds on the insights of others by engaging in a dialectical and relational analysis of caregiving in this most critical of contexts.