Sex News: Disability Sex Festival, Adaptive Lingerie, Sex Ed in Malta & $5K Educator Grants

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“The 2021 festival is being organised by Co-Chairs Dr Mitchell Tepper and Lorraine Stanley, a Disability and Sex Training Consultant from the UK, together with a collective of volunteers that attended the original festival…

“We are working to change the belief that intimate relationships, pleasurable sensations, orgasm, and ecstatic states are not possible for those with physical disabilities.

“In addition, we will equip participants with an array of tips, techniques and tools so as to enjoy sex and express their sexuality with confidence and ease. We seek to fill the gaps in the lack of sexual education and positive role models when it comes to sexuality and disability. This year the Festival will be held October 20-22, 2021.” (via Love Abilities/Eventbrite)

“While underwear are not innately sexual, some disabled people are also using their adaptive garments to reassert their sexuality. ‘Part of the reason adaptive clothing especially adaptive intimates have been so ugly and medical in the past is because of the ableist idea that disabled people don’t or can’t have sex, feel confident, or be desirable,’ Butler explains.

“The Intimately creator cites Crip Camp, a documentary in which Denise Sherer Jacobson recollects how doctors failed to diagnose her with gonorrhea because they couldn’t imagine that she — a disabled woman — was sexually active. Butler continues, ‘We need to change the narrative around sex and disability. We can do that by educating ableist doctors, but we can also disrupt the fashion industry to create sexy, beautiful, and empowering adaptive clothing.’ (Via Laken Brooks/Forbes)

Effing Foundation’s 2021-2022 grant application cycle

“It’s autumn and the Effing Foundation’s 2021-2022 grant application cycle is in full swing!…

“For this grant cycle, Effing is offering $5,000 grants to support the work of sex-positive artists and educators. The funds are unrestricted, meaning they can be used by recipients in any way that’s directly related to supporting your work or project.

“Members of marginalized communities (LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, fat people, people with physical and emotional disabilities, neurodiverse people, sex workers, those living with chronic illness, currently or formerly incarcerated people) are all encouraged to apply. Grant applications are currently being accepted, with applications closing on October 3, 2021, at 11:59pm US Eastern time. Grants can be submitted on The Effing Foundation’s Submittable Page. (via The Effing Foundation)

“Tom Shakespeare, who visited Malta in 2017, asserts that barriers to the sexual expression of disabled people are primarily linked with the society in which they live in and ‘not the bodies with which they are endowed.’ Socio-cultural beliefs surrounding sexuality and disability have a strong and direct influence on the sexuality of people with intellectual disability and their opportunity to receive sex education. Consequently, cultural scripts associated with restrictive religious views regarding sexuality have further impacted the lives of people with intellectual disability…

“Currently, research carried out locally claims that the majority of parents of people with intellectual disability resist the idea that their sons and daughters have a sexual identity and that they could have intimate relationships. Some parents are also report­ed to lack sex education themselves, apart from disapprov­ing of it, because they find it difficult to accept that their children are exposed to and are interested in these matters.”

(via Claire Azzopardi Lane/Time of Malta)

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