The Ableism of Sex

Richard showed this too me last night and I am quiet flabbergasted on why this even on trial

The body of the link



Judge bans man with low IQ from having sex


By Martin Beckford, The Daily Telegraph February 4, 2011



A man with a low IQ has been banned from having sexual intercourse by a High Court judge who admitted the case raised questions about "civil liberties and personal autonomy".

The 41 year-old had been in a relationship with a man with whom he lived and told officials "it would make me feel happy" for it to continue.

But his local council, which provides his accommodation, decided his "vigorous sex drive" was inappropriate and that with an IQ of 48 and a "moderate" learning disability, he did not understand what he was doing. It started legal proceedings to restrict the relationship.

A psychiatrist involved in the case tried to prevent the man being given sex education, on the grounds that it would leave him "confused".

Mr Justice Mostyn said the case was "legally, intellectually and morally" complex as sex is "one of the most basic human functions" and the court must "tread especially carefully" when the state tries to curtail it.

But he agreed that the man, known only as Alan, should not be allowed to have intercourse with anyone on the grounds that he did not have the mental capacity to understand the health risks associated with his actions.

Under the judge's order, the man is now subject to "close supervision" by the local authority to ensure he does not break the highly unusual order. The judge concluded: "Alan does not have the capacity to consent to and engage in sexual relations.

"In such circumstances it is agreed that the present regime for Alan's supervision and for the prevention of future sexual activity is in his best interests."

It is the latest controversial case to come before Britain's Court of Protection. Under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, its judges have the power to make life-or-death decisions for people deemed to lack the intelligence to make them for themselves - such as ordering that they undergo surgery, have forced abortions, have life-support switched off or be forced to use contraception.

In the latest case, the man known as Alan was described as being physically able but "seriously challenged in all aspects of his mental functionality". He lived in a home provided by the council, where he developed a sexual relationship with a man called Kieron by the court. Alan was also accused of making lewd gestures at children in a dentists' surgery and on a bus, although no police action was taken.

The town hall began court proceedings in 2009 to restrict contact with Kieron on the grounds that he lacked mental capacity, and an interim order was made.

"Since then Alan has been subjected to close supervision to prevent any further sexual activity on his part," said the judge.



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This entire thing rubs me the wrong way. Lets bring up a few things. First off, the trial reads simply "Ew! Gay retards are having sex ew!" It's complete aversion to the idea that "Alan" is interested with having a sexual relationship with his another person (let alone a man) NEWS FLASH!!People with intellectual abilities, developmental delays, mental illnesses and brain injuries are not non sexual people! I know this is a shock to all you able body folks here but guess what, sex isn't just for able people. And the idea that Alan wants to have a sexual relationship with a peer isn't something deviant.

Now I know people are wondering "but what if he lover is not in the same developmental range as Alan wouldn't he be taking advantage of him?" Richard and I inferred that they met in an assisted living situation and they are both adults with intellectual disabilities. I have yet to see any information that is contrary. Until that information is presented.

I am gonna say this is rather fucked.

Yesterday's news (poem)

I see animals living captivity
They call it a zoo
but when see man in captivity
and I call it an Institution
where the concept of humanity
is all but a figment of a former reality
like puppies that got to big
and tossed aside like yesterday's news
human beings locked away in
discontentment and division
where their value is place at negative 10
and where their souls tear and rend
but is there an end?
There is no end

Ladies and gentlemen
I'll give you straight facts
no lies or bias here
stories need to be told
and spoken here
injustice is a foot my friends
and we must not be blind in ignorance
I have heard the tales of children being shocked
with burns on their legs and arms
tied down in leather straps
lock in a night dark room
halls scented of piss and vomit
little girls being raped while the nurse is away
parents lied saying it's ok
when the state is involved everything goes to hell
rights are stripped away from the most needy
and left to die I their own feces

humans with cognitive delays are not the enemy
not some obscene sort of tragedy
pretend you can't talk, and world is strange thing
would you want to say something? To have a choice to be protected?
Is easier to pretend that the retard locked in sterile halls is not human
would be better for you to turn you head away
default your responsibility
I wish I could tie you down watch every fucking second
of a Down Syndrome boy screaming as he left alone
in a dark and empty room
I want you to suffer like they suffer
I want to you to bleed like they bleed
I want you see what I see
I am not just hero without a cause
I have seen the mouth of ethical hell
state funded institutions are not homes
just another word for a prison
but at least prisoners have rights
what right does 'bifida girl have
besides being left alone in her wheelchair
the autistic boy is always tied down he screams for his mom
but mommy ain't here
I will champion for them my friend
after all it could be your kid
locked up in that zoo

thrown away like yesterday's news

Yesterday's News

Theorm of Compassion and the justification of humanity

The old trope that autistic people are so withdrawn that they cannot connect to the world, thusly they are inherently selfish and disconnected from people. They cannot empathize with people. Therefore, in human context.

We're not human.

Empathy is a socio-political tool. It's used to gain perspectives and viewpoints. Accusing someone for not having empathy is also a tool. It's used to continue the schism of Us/Them, and as well as putting oneself on a pedestal of pity and feed a victim complex. 

"How can you be so obtuse? Can you understand where I am coming from? The suffering and the pain I am in?" 

How many times have we heard this? How many times have we been accused by our peers and by our friends that we lack empathy and emotion during times of emotional distress and pain? As we sit quietly by our eyes trying to access the information that we have been given. 

Juxtaposed is our NT friends looking ashamed at us we struggle in a sea of sensory information. Screaming in pain and or doing anything to combat the input that we cannot process. They advert their eyes or accuse us of embarrassing them. We however don't point fingers and shout that they lack empathy. Instead. We apologize for being autistic. 

Changeling culture has giving us a schism of typical and atypical, in which all those that are neurologically atypical are always at fault. It is normal for typical to look upon the atypical with disdain and to lack the empathy necessary to understand the footsteps and journey we take as disabled people. So we grew apologetic for our nature as disabled. Being overly-apologetic is normal for an autistic person. What parent has heard their son or daughter on the spectrum constantly apologize for everything. We don't apologize for an action but for being who we are. Changeling culture has viewed us as mistakes, problems, unwanted. So we apologize for being mistakes in our families. 

While we nurse a rather large victim complex, autists need to step back and stop saying sorry for being human. It's time to look at what is empathy and what is compassion, NTs and autists alike have seem to mix those definitions up. As I stated in another essay about ToM, every human lacks empathy. A hetronormative male will not understand the feeling of being gay to their homosexual peer. A very rich American can't understand what it's like to really go hungry or what it's like to be surrounded by rubble like their Haitian counterparts. Typicals like to pretend that they do, until someone calls them on their privilege. In all no human being can be 'mindreaders' if we can be, why do we still have sexism, classism and racism then? 

However an autist and a typical both have compassion. Yet they show it in different ways. A little girl has lost their dog. A typical person would hug and use physical affection and soothing words to comfort the child. An autist would find a photo of the dog and make flyers to post all over the neighborhood. An autist is practical whilst a NT is more emotive. However it wasn't prayers and pleading wishes to deities that helped the people of Haiti or the ravaged New Orleansians it was hard work and real practical compassion. 

An autist may lack the understanding of someone looking for their beloved dog, might even suggest that the odds of finding the dog is slim and it's better for them to look for another dog at a shelter. Would even accuse the poor man of being irresponsible and not properly put a collar on the dog or microchip it. Still...

It will not stop him from him from getting the flyers. 

Ignorance (NSFW)

Ok kiddies it's another NSFC/W post on sex. Those under 18 are not permitted to read.















So I wrote a post back in October about sex and orgasm. This is also about sex but a short post on the idealism that sex is more that just male-centric that it's also able-centric. The idea of disabled adults with amputations, deafness or some sort of mental illness having sex is considered dirty or even fetishistic. I have been around enough "hentai" and "yaoi" groups to notice that there is such thing as an amputation fetish. Is it wrong? No it's not wrong to have a fetish but to treat those people as a just a kink and not 'people' is.

What is even more disturbing is the social belief that those with developmental delays are unsexual beings and live in perpetual childlike innocence. That they will never understand sex and it is fruitless to have a conversation about sex to them. Of course many will figure it out on their own and sometimes in the worse sort of ways. Parents are also disgusted at the thought of their sons or daughters masturbating and will try to correct this 'deviant' behavior. Never mind the fact that if a typical teen masturbates, most parents will do is roll their eyes and shut the door. Yes masturbation is stigmatized for all neurotypes but it seems that those with atypical neurologies get punished for it more than those with neurologies that are accepted.

This infantilizting of people with DD including autists is very detrimental and continued to assert the ablelism that only healthy normal people enjoy and have sex. Autistic people having sex is gross, severally autistic people interested and even having sex themselves is wrong and bad. It's continuing to enforce sexual ignorance among my social group and continuing the schism between between typical and atypical. It also suggests the idea that, autistic people and DD people...can't consent to sex. Therefore it's wrong.

I find this troubling in many levels.

Media doesn't resolve this problem. Picoult's book House Rules has Jacob Hunt being asexual and even aromantic (which is another believe that HFA autistics have no idea of romantic love let alone severe autists) Jacob admits that he might have love Jess however. I feel that was just shoving the dagger a bit deeper really and into an Adam-esq feeling of: "You may love the girl but you'll never have her". Elizabeth Moon, did this too but she made Lou a sexual being. Lou narrates in "Speed of Dark" that he wants to take his love interest out and even make love to her. This defiantly suggests that Lou enjoys and wants sex (I have feeling though that Moon made him a virgin).

The idea that sex between two consenting atypical adults should be normalize. Is one that many people can't seen to fathom. Mostly because consent seems to be a "normal" thing. Autistic and DD people can't consent.

We should abolish this, sex is a choice. A choice that all people should have and not be judge for it. Autists should have the right have sex, or not have sex. Not every autist is asexual.

Looking outside the box

Neurodiversity seems to be a word that resonates exclusively within the autism community. I've noticed a lot when an individual states that he for the neurodiverse that he also some how related to the Autism community. 

I've noticed this monopoly, and I don't know if I quiet like it

I found this blog last night (late at night) and I was pleasantly surprised. When you assumed that neurodiversity seems to be an autism only phenomenon, find someone else outside of the autism community that supports neurodiversity is quite reassuring. 

We go on how neurodiversity celebrates those with alter-neurologies but when we look at the people that are part of the movement and advocate it we just seem bland trail of people only connected by autism. Now I do know about the 'Rett Devil' and several people that have synthesia and ADD which is wonderful and I am proud of that, but it feels so one sided. Where are other supporters around the developmental disability community? Are there parents with Down's syndrome children that support neurodiversity? William's syndrome or Angleman's? Fragile X even? 

I am rather curious to see who else advocate's neurodiversity...I don't want to believe it's just an autism only movement. Who else with in the DD community advocates it?