Tag: lgbtq+

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It’s Time to Make All Queer Spaces Accessible

Three Black and disabled folx smile and hold mini flags. On the left, a non-binary person holds both a rainbow pride flag and a transgender pride flag, while a cane rests behind her. In the middle, a non-binary person waves the rainbow flag while in their power wheelchair. On the right, a femme waves both a rainbow and transgender pride flag.

“Another reason I struggled to identify as gay was the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The Mardi Gras was the first introduction to my people,” explained Hannah Gadsby in her 2020 Netflix special Douglas, “I used to sit there and watch it and go where do the quiet gays go?” 

In her comedy special, Gadsby revealed that she was diagnosed with autism in her thirties, the delay partially because she did not match the prototype of autism, and the prototypical LGBTQ+ individual she saw on her TV screen.

Incorporating accessibility into queer community safe spaces is about acknowledging the diversity within our own community and welcoming people of all ability levels into spaces we create for expression, acceptance, and identity. 

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The Unwritten’s Guide to Some Disabled LGBTQ+ Historical Icons

Graffiti style art showing a rainbow and a disability sign with the line drawing of a wheelchair, on a background which appears to be like weathered wooden boards

Every year, when LGBTQ+ history month rolls around, I revel in the magnificence of our history and lament the repeated erasure of disabled people’s contributions. 

Our work is frequently sidelined in favour of celebrating the broader contributions of the queer community. However, we are far more active in queer history than you may realise. 

Queer, disabled people have always existed – yes, even when historic civilisations were determined to stamp us out – yet our achievements and passions are regularly written out of history. Sometimes this takes the form of ignoring us completely and at others, it means excluding a disability or illness when profiling important figures. 

Whether this is motivated by ignorance or a willful dismissal of the value of disabled people’s contributions is hard to quantify. To rectify some of these omissions, we’ve gathered a list of LGBTQ+ icons with disabilities history tried to forget about. 

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all Columns Disabled and Sexual opinion

Disabled and Sexual: Disabled LGBTQ+ People Deserve to Feel Welcome in Queer spaces

Three disabled people, one is draped in a pride flag, the other two holding pride flags

Disabled and Sexual is a monthly(-ish) column by Hannah Shewan Stevens which will explore all the challenges, comedy, and fun that disabled people experience as sexual beings, even while we are desexualised by a predominantly non-disabled society.

If you took one look at a Pride parade or any of the capitalist Pride advertising during June, you’d be forgiven for assuming that disabled people are almost non-existent in the LGBTQ+ community. 

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