From the BBC:

A UK charity has launched an informational campaign promoting the rights of people with learning disabilities to have sex and relationships.

The FPA, formerly known as the Family Planning Association, says research indicates people with learning difficulties are often denied help in pursuing relationships.

Julie Bentley, chief executive of FPA, said living independently meant more than “qualifications and securing a job”.

“Expressing your sexuality and enjoying a relationship is something everyone values,” she said.

… “Information and skills must be available to people with learning disabilities so they can enjoy intimate relationships without putting themselves at risk.”

From Disability Now:

Stephen Fry, a prominent UK writer, actor and television personality, says people with mental health problems should develop a sense of pride to help banish public stigma. Fry, who has bipolar disorder, draws parallels to the civil rights and gay rights movements.

“Once that pride is there, once we all stand up and account for ourselves and not be ashamed of ourselves, then it makes the rest of the population realize two things,” he said in an interview. “One, that we are just them but with something extra. And two, how close we are.”

… “It’s actually necessary for our gene pool to have some people in it who are just not normal. It is an immense privilege to belong to a group of people who are not normal.”

Update here: Rights groups prepare for boycotts, protest

A national coalition of disability rights organizations has formally requested a meeting with executives at DreamWorks/Paramount to express concerns about negative portrayals of people with intellectual disabilities in “Tropic Thunder,” an R-rated raunchfest that is set to open August 13.

(Earlier posts here and here.)

Ben Stiller plays two characters in the big-budget comedy: a fading action hero (above left with Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black), and “Simple Jack,” a kind-hearted dolt with bad teeth whose onscreen presence prompts frequent use of words like “retard,” “moron” and “imbecile.”

At a hastily convened conference call yesterday, advocates voiced dissatisfaction over studio promotional materials that feature the slogan “Once upon a time … There was a retard,” as well as worries that the Simple Jack character reinforces hurtful stereotypes. The ad-hoc coalition also requested an advance screening of the film.

Among the organizations represented were the American Association of People with Disabilities, The Arc of the United States, Special Olympics, the National Down Syndrome Congress, United Cerebral Palsy, the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network, TASH, and the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts.

While the group was optimistic that the meeting and screening would take place next week, it also discussed possible organized efforts to attract negative attention to the film.

In a New York Times article this morning that references this website, studio executives brushed aside questions about the way the film portrays people with disabilities. Here’s a comment from Stacey Snider, chief executive of the DreamWorks unit:

Ms. Snider acknowledged the risks inherent in the film. It is the first from DreamWorks, she said, to use a so-called red band trailer, which attempts to limit access to online viewers 17 or older. (Visitors to tropicthunder.com can view it only after clicking on “Restricted” and entering name, ZIP code and birth date.)

But the film’s humor, she said, comes at the expense of its own heroes, a corps of knucklehead actors, rather than of the handicapped or anyone else. “The star-studdedness of it, and the absolute playability of it, trumps it all,” Ms. Snider said.

And from the film’s star, director and lead writer Ben Stiller, there was this:

“It’s hard for me to tell people how to react,” he said. “The whole point of the movie is about actors, and the length actors will go to to advance their careers.”

For disability rights organizations, the stakes are high. “Tropic Thunder” is among the summer’s biggest films, with major stars, a production budget of about $90 million and a promotional budget of tens of millions more.

Whatever messages are embedded in the movie will soon be seen by millions of people, and could help to define how people with apparent disabilities are viewed by the public. Current figures from the U.S. Census Bureau put the number of Americans with cognitive disabilities at 14.3 million, or 6 percent of the population 15 and older.

There will doubtless be statements from studio executives who say the film is an equal opportunity offender. It pokes fun at racial stereotypes, with Robert Downey Jr. dressing in blackface and citing the theme song of “The Jeffersons.” Jack Black does fart jokes. Everybody’s offended, right?

Let’s answer that with some questions. People of different races surely were involved in the making of this film, and were able to express opinions about which references were humorous and which might have gone too far. So were people with different sexual orientations.

How many people with cognitive disabilities were involved in the making of this film? Were any people with cognitive disabilities involved in focus groups for this film? How many are employed by Dreamworks, or by parent company Paramount?

See Dave Hingsburger’s essay on one girl’s reaction to the word “retard”:
http://davehingsburger.blogspot.com/2008/05/that-word-this-girl.html

See also: Update: Meeting set between studio, rights coalition

(Paramount Pictures image from the New York Times)

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

In a unanimous decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that struck down special protections for victims of hate crimes who are gay, female or disabled.

The court ruled that the legislature had unlawfully inserted the hate-crime language into an unrelated measure.

Gov. Edward G. Rendell, through a spokesman, urged the Legislature to reinstate the statute immediately. “Removing protections from any class of people does not seem to fit any categories of equal protection,” said Rendell’s press secretary, Chuck Ardo.

Related story: Michigan bill would extend hate crime protections to gay, disabled people

From the Topeka [KS] Capital-Journal:

A federal appeals court has taken laws prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities into territory we don’t think those who drafted the laws ever anticipated they would venture.

We’re sure we never imagined the Rehabilitation Act, passed by Congress in 1973 and a forerunner to the Americans with Disabilities Act, would be invoked to cover a “sexual disability.” We’re still mystified at how a such a disability is anything an employer or potential employer should be made aware of and hope further court action in the case offers some enlightenment.

Earlier post here.

From the McClatchy-Tribune News Service in the Houston Chronicle and Employment Law 360 (free registration required):

A federal appeals court has ruled that the inability to have sex is a disability protected under federal anti-discrimination laws.

The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia came in the case of a U.S. foreign service candidate who was disqualified by the State Department after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The 2-1 opinion held that the woman’s inability to have sexual relations amounted to a disability protected under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits federal agencies from job discrimination against people who are disabled.

The new appellate-court ruling gives Piedmont, S.C., resident Kathy E. Adams another potential shot at serving overseas. More broadly, the ruling cracks open the courtroom door for additional legal challenges by those who are sexually incapacitated.

Adams wants to compel the State Department to hire her as a foreign service officer and provide back pay. She’ll now go before a jury and trial judge, unless the State Department relents first.

From The Detroit Free Press:

Shannon Wiltse was raised to be fiercely independent after she was born with partial limbs, but she longed for a relationship and found the answer on the internet. Wiltse, a genetics counselor, says she felt discouraged by the way men reacted to her disability so she didn’t reveal her condition to Allen DeWall until six weeks after they began chatting online.

“You need to know,” Shannon told Allen, “that I’m missing everything from the knees down, on both legs, and on my left arm from the elbow down, and on my right hand I have one digit, just one finger.”

Allen remembers thinking, “What am I getting myself into?”

But he did not say “Let’s just be friends.”

He said, “So what?”