WEBVTT 00:00:01.561 --> 00:00:03.550 My first word was "squirrel", I think. 00:00:03.550 --> 00:00:04.816 My next word was Mom, 00:00:04.816 --> 00:00:06.851 and the word after that was "disability". 00:00:06.851 --> 00:00:10.291 It was a word that I needed to be able to articulate 00:00:10.291 --> 00:00:12.496 something that was going on with my body. 00:00:12.496 --> 00:00:15.539 I personally don't actually like the word "disability" 00:00:15.539 --> 00:00:17.656 to describe what's going on with me 00:00:17.656 --> 00:00:19.368 because it's not, 00:00:19.368 --> 00:00:21.875 to me it's not specific enough, I guess. 00:00:21.875 --> 00:00:26.592 Cuz it just sounds like my ability is dissed [LAUGHING]. 00:00:28.056 --> 00:00:29.544 The problem with the word "disability" 00:00:29.544 --> 00:00:33.677 is that it has a negative connotation from the get-go. 00:00:33.677 --> 00:00:36.104 It automatically implies that there's something 00:00:36.104 --> 00:00:37.702 that somebody can't, 00:00:37.702 --> 00:00:40.280 or something that somebody isn't, 00:00:40.280 --> 00:00:43.587 and that becomes defining, 00:00:43.587 --> 00:00:47.185 a foundational definition of the way somebody thinks of somebody. 00:00:47.431 --> 00:00:51.621 [PIANO MUSIC...] 00:00:53.806 --> 00:00:54.907 So for me, 00:00:54.907 --> 00:00:57.120 I was injured in the part of the spinal cord 00:00:57.120 --> 00:01:03.485 which is exactly right in the area where sexual ennervation takes place. 00:01:04.085 --> 00:01:08.071 But I had to find out for myself what all of this meant. 00:01:10.146 --> 00:01:13.308 I think that queer sex, being able to have queer sex, 00:01:13.308 --> 00:01:15.314 and opening myself up to queer sex 00:01:15.314 --> 00:01:16.865 and feeling good about it 00:01:16.865 --> 00:01:21.481 has been a lot about what it has taught me about how to have sex 00:01:21.481 --> 00:01:24.580 both with a different body and with different bodies, 00:01:24.580 --> 00:01:28.498 because you already are thinking about 00:01:28.498 --> 00:01:30.584 new ways that you do things, 00:01:30.584 --> 00:01:33.679 you're already thinking outside of this like normative paradigm 00:01:33.679 --> 00:01:37.745 of like, missionary position and "this is how people have sex". 00:01:38.932 --> 00:01:43.179 It became more and more about just me and my personal growth 00:01:43.179 --> 00:01:44.817 as an individual in a relationship, 00:01:44.817 --> 00:01:48.142 and less and less about my body and my disability. 00:01:52.441 --> 00:01:55.552 Having sex in my wheelchair is RAD!