1 00:00:01,561 --> 00:00:03,550 My first word was "squirrel", I think. 2 00:00:03,550 --> 00:00:04,816 My next word was Mom, 3 00:00:04,816 --> 00:00:06,851 and the word after that was "disability". 4 00:00:06,851 --> 00:00:10,291 It was a word that I needed to be able to articulate 5 00:00:10,291 --> 00:00:12,496 something that was going on with my body. 6 00:00:12,496 --> 00:00:15,539 I personally don't actually like the word "disability" 7 00:00:15,539 --> 00:00:17,656 to describe what's going on with me 8 00:00:17,656 --> 00:00:19,368 because it's not, 9 00:00:19,368 --> 00:00:21,875 to me it's not specific enough, I guess. 10 00:00:21,875 --> 00:00:26,592 Cuz it just sounds like my ability is dissed [LAUGHING]. 11 00:00:28,056 --> 00:00:29,544 The problem with the word "disability" 12 00:00:29,544 --> 00:00:33,677 is that it has a negative connotation from the get-go. 13 00:00:33,677 --> 00:00:36,104 It automatically implies that there's something 14 00:00:36,104 --> 00:00:37,702 that somebody can't, 15 00:00:37,702 --> 00:00:40,280 or something that somebody isn't, 16 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:43,587 and that becomes defining, 17 00:00:43,587 --> 00:00:47,185 a foundational definition of the way somebody thinks of somebody. 18 00:00:47,431 --> 00:00:51,621 [PIANO MUSIC...] 19 00:00:53,806 --> 00:00:54,907 So for me, 20 00:00:54,907 --> 00:00:57,120 I was injured in the part of the spinal cord 21 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:03,485 which is exactly right in the area where sexual ennervation takes place. 22 00:01:04,085 --> 00:01:08,071 But I had to find out for myself what all of this meant. 23 00:01:10,146 --> 00:01:13,308 I think that queer sex, being able to have queer sex, 24 00:01:13,308 --> 00:01:15,314 and opening myself up to queer sex 25 00:01:15,314 --> 00:01:16,865 and feeling good about it 26 00:01:16,865 --> 00:01:21,481 has been a lot about what it has taught me about how to have sex 27 00:01:21,481 --> 00:01:24,580 both with a different body and with different bodies, 28 00:01:24,580 --> 00:01:28,498 because you already are thinking about 29 00:01:28,498 --> 00:01:30,584 new ways that you do things, 30 00:01:30,584 --> 00:01:33,679 you're already thinking outside of this like normative paradigm 31 00:01:33,679 --> 00:01:37,745 of like, missionary position and "this is how people have sex". 32 00:01:38,932 --> 00:01:43,179 It became more and more about just me and my personal growth 33 00:01:43,179 --> 00:01:44,817 as an individual in a relationship, 34 00:01:44,817 --> 00:01:48,142 and less and less about my body and my disability. 35 00:01:52,441 --> 00:01:55,552 Having sex in my wheelchair is RAD!