CILT wishes all 2SLGBTQ+ community members a Happy Pride!
Queer disabled people don’t just have to contend with ableism. They also encounter additional barriers resulting from homophobia, transphobia and racism.
CILT works to support all disabled people to realize their rights to make choices, examine options and live independently in the community, including disabled peoples’ rights to love who they love.
We work alongside queer and disabled staff and consumers on programs that support disabled people to have their voices heard (GTA Disability Coalition) disabled parents (and potential parents) and to build community through peer-based programs (Parenting with a Disability Network). We are working to raise awareness of disability inclusion in the non-profit sector through our IDE+A project, too.
We encourage everyone to check out the resources below, many of which are stories by disabled and queer community members, that have been pulled together by members of our Core program team.
Finding community is so important. We hope CILT can help you to connect to community.
Wishing everyone a happy, warm and inclusive Pride!
Wendy Porch
Executive Director, CILT
Queer Disability Resources
12 Disabled LGBTQIA+ Activists & Advocates Who You Need to Know
Disabled LGBTQ Creatives Imagine a Better Tomorrow
https://www.advocate.com/exclusives/2021/1/29/disabled-lgbtq-creatives-imagine-better-tomorrow
Disability Justice in Queer Communities
https://www.rainbowsalad.ca/2021/07/pride365-disability-justice-in-queer-communities
Disability Justice is a LGBTQ Issue
UN experts issue guidance in relation to LGBT persons living with disabilities
Understanding Disability in the LGBTQ+ Community
https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-disabled-lgbtq-people
Articles/Websites
10 Canadian LGBTQ stories that need to be made into films or TV series
Queer is not a bad word. It’s our unifying path forward
https://www.cbc.ca/arts/queer-is-not-a-bad-word-1.6869284
What Queer Individuals with Marginalized Identities Hope You Recall After Pride.
I’m queer and disabled. Pride isn’t accessible for me | CBC Radio
Why accessibility in the queer community is still a problem
https://xtramagazine.com/power/why-accessibility-in-the-queer-community-is-still-a-problem-8776
10 influential disabled LGBTQ+ activists to follow this Pride Month with video links:
Invisibility within queer and crip communities: subverting the gaze.
By Amber Reid
https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/knots/article/download/22833/18600
Making Pride Disability Inclusive | The Pulse
Hooking up with chronic pain
How getting diagnosed with autism helped me embrace my asexuality https://xtramagazine.com/health/autism-helped-me-embrace-being-asexual-250727
Still Being Left Behind: The Intimate Lives of Queer Disabled People https://thesocietypages.org/ccf/2022/07/19/still-being-left-behind-the-intimate-lives-of-queer-disabled-people/
For LGBTQ2S+ people with spina bifida, connection is everything https://xtramagazine.com/health/spina-bifida-lgbtq-238297
What the Fight Against HIV Can Teach Us About Surviving the COVID Era
Stories
Meaningful Sexual Lives and Sexual Rights- Rainbow Hunt
Rainbow is a transgender woman with an intellectual and learning disability. Rainbow talks about how it is important for all people to have positive spaces where they feel safe in their sexuality. Many resources are not available to people if they cannot get to downtown Toronto because of distance and transportation costs. People are often isolated due to a lack of resources and social supports, especially people who identify as LGBTQ+. Rainbow talks about how to create spaces for people to celebrate who they are and feel like they are a part of a community, specifically discussing a grassroots community collective called Rainbow’s Pride In Scarborough.
Multiple and Converging Identities- Dev Ramsawakh
Dev draws from their own experiences living as a racialized, non-binary, and queer disabled person to explain the complexities of having a relationship to their own sexuality as a multiply marginalized person. Dev gives examples from their life as to how an understanding of intersectionality is essential to provide the appropriate resources, tools and information required to have a healthy empowered sense of sexuality.
Multiple and Converging Identities Speaker Dr. Alan Martino (Audio Recording)
This talk shares the results of a systematic review addressing the juncture between disability and sexualities, illuminating the unique challenges that LGBT+ disabled people face when exploring their sexuality, establishing relationships, and remaining sexual. Similarly, a small interview study suggests that, because of social isolation, restrictions, and surveillance, participants are often unable to access spaces that allow intimate relationships to flourish. This work sheds light on the consistent experiences of invisibility, exclusion, and lack of support for LGBT+ disabled people. Future studies should make space for the array of sexualities among disabled people by exploring their narratives, experiences, and perspectives.
Mari Ramsawakh on queer disability and the arts | This Ability | Xtra Magazine
Andrew Gurza on queer disability and sex | This Ability | Xtra Magazine
Videos
LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Sport
https://www.amiplus.ca/beyond-field/lgbtq-inclusion-sport?app-config=ami-tv
As Pride Month kicks off, black trans activists want their stories centered, with Imara Jones – 5 mins
Imara Jones: The Anti-Trans Hate Machine
Billy Porter Gives A Brief History of Queer Political Action – 5 mins
Peter Knegt on The Body Politic Collective | Super Queeroes
Remembering the 1981 Toronto bathhouse raids | Queer History | Xtra
Remembering Stonewall: On 50th Anniversary, Leaders of Uprising Look Back on Sparking LGBTQ Movement
The Stonewall You Know Is a Myth. And That’s O.K.
Why is Pride a Parade?
Podcasts:
CRIP times Podcast
(Not every episode is focused on 2SLGBTQIA+ and Disability topics but many are!)
Books/Print:
Queer Disabled Stories Matter (booklist)
https://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/arts_culture/2022/06/queer-disability-stories-matter.html
Disability/Neurodivergence | LGBTQ Reads (booklist)
