ABSTRACT
This chapter presents research and activist work advocating for the sexual rights of disabled people. The romantic and intimate lives of disabled people have been marked by a history of oppression, abuse and de-sexualisation. State-sanctioned sterilisations of people with disabilities and the numerous eugenic movements associated with practices serve as the most overt and inhumane examples of how negative attitudes become reified into social policy. The variety of the initiatives exemplifies the richness and diversity of disability- sexuality activism and illustrates some of the ways that disabled people are advocating for and claiming intimate citizenship and socio-sexual rights. Disability activists have done the critical work of subverting the taboo and stigma commonly associated with disability and sexuality; and they have turned the conversation towards desiring disability. The sexual lives of disabled people have the potential to challenge dominant cultural ideas of what constitutes sex.
