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?”

The Christian Science Monitor calls it “a perverse psychological drama about able-bodied people who yearn to become disabled,” and gives it a C-. Premiere gives it three stars, and calls it “a dark romance.” The Los Angeles Times says it’s “unexpectedly moving.”

Quid Pro Quo, in limited release, is the story of a public radio reporter who is investigating a story on able-bodied people who seek identity and eroticism in amputation, paralysis and paraplegia. The film by writer-director Carlos Brooks stars Nick Stahl as the reporter, who is himself partially paralyzed, and Vera Farmiga as his love interest, an attractive blonde who confesses her overwhelming desire to spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.

From the New York Times review by Stephen Holden:

Ms. Farmiga’s performance might be described as radioactive — her character, in which she uncovers many conflicting emotional layers, has a glow-in-the-dark phosphorescence that is sexy, but also scary. In Fiona’s mind the medical paraphernalia of paralysis has an erotic power similar to that of the accoutrements of sadomasochism. An elaborate brace, for instance, is the ne plus ultra in sexy lingerie.

After spinning out metaphors of paralysis and eroticism in its characters’ feverish imaginations, “Quid Pro Quo” decides at the last minute that it has to explain everything. The moment it pulls away from the fantastic, it lands with a thud.

The movie trailer is here.

In an interview with Premiere, actress Vera Farmiga says she based her performance on her reading on the Internet about people with “Body Integrity Identity Disorder”, which she says is authentic.

Yvonne K. Fulbright, the ‘Sexpert’ for Fox.com, says it’s time for society to reexamine and change its attitudes about sex and disability. “People with disabilities can be very sexual — much more than we give them credit for,” she says.

Fulbright offers a list of stereotypes that need to be challenged. Among them:

• People with disabilities aren’t sexual beings.
• People with disabilities are undesirable.
• People with disabilities shouldn’t have sex.

From the Chicago Tribune:

In a precedent-setting case, the Illinois Appellate Court on Friday denied a bid to have a mentally disabled woman sterilized against her will, ruling the woman’s guardian didn’t prove the procedure would be in her best interests.

The woman, identified in the opinion only as K.E.J., is not capable of raising a child due to her disability, the court acknowledged in its 3-0 ruling.

“Nevertheless that need not justify tubal ligation” when there are “less intrusive and less psychologically harmful [birth-control] alternatives,” Judge Joseph Gordon wrote for the unanimous panel.

‘How I faced up to a deep-seated prejudice against disabled people’

[UK] Guardian columnist Stewart Dakers explores the complicated emotions he experiences when two acquaintances who have disabilities get married, buy a house and have a child. He describes Dave and Sue as having epilepsy and other conditions he doesn’t understand. “… A generation ago, they’d have been called ‘retards’.”

Dakers says he and other neighbors felt uneasy when the couple married, thinking it “improper, unseemly,” and “a step too far.” Their disapproval grew when Dave and Sue had a child. “No good can come of it … shouldn’t be allowed,” some said.

At this point, Dakers writes, he began to dislike Sue — and he sees that dislike as a positive development.

(more…)

From Libraryjournal.com, a review of “Autistics’ Guide to Dating: A Book by Autistics, for Autistics and Those Who Love Them or Who Are in Love with Them,” by Jody and Emilia Ramey.

Married couple Jody and Emilia Ramey are both on the autistic spectrum and often collaborate as disability advocates. While sharing their own story of courtship, they clearly address for other autistics such issues as eye contact, social skills, and personal space in relation to meeting someone and fostering a relationship that could evolve into a committed romantic love. Each chapter ends with a call to action, suggesting ways that caregivers and parents can help.

Jody and Emilia have explored what a successful relationship requires of them individually and as a couple; their sensible strategies for overcoming communication and social deficits result in an insightful and accessible guide for autistics, their loved ones, and anyone looking to become a part of a couple.