From the Boston Globe:

A Massachusetts bill that was intended to protect vulnerable people from sexual exploitation has stirred widespread protest among senior citizens and people with disabilities, who say it could instead criminalize self-expression.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein, says people over age 60 and people with disabilities who have been declared mentally incompetent cannot give consent to erotic photographs. Other parts of the bill use the term “elders and persons with a disability” without referring to mental competence or consent.

Critics say the generalized language perpetuates stereotypes about people with disabilities as asexual or childlike, and potentially infringes on free speech rights.

Reinstein said the bill’s language was written by legislative committee, and will probably be changed in response to the criticism before it comes to a vote.

Author Ralph Savarese, writing in the Des Moines Register, responds to a question posed by his 16-year-old son with autism. “Will I ever get to have sex?” the young man asked via his talking computer. An excerpt:

On the whole, we’ve come a long way from the incarceration, sterilization, and eugenics of the 20th century, but not far enough. The dream of full participation in life’s richness for those with cognitive differences remains just that: a dream. Who of us doesn’t want a job, a home and friends? Who of us doesn’t want a share of that sublime and affirming activity we call sex (or what my son at age 12 memorably termed “great feelings”)?

We need to stop behaving like hysterical Puritans and provide people with disabilities with rigorous sex education. Not only that but opportunities, even trained sexual facilitators, if need be. Kids with disabilities grow up. Let them look forward to what the rest of us look forward to. We can do this responsibly, ethically.

Savarese is the author, with his son, of “Reasonable People: A Memoir of Autism and Adoption.”

From Good Morning America (video) and USA Today:

Quinn Bradlee, the son of former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee and journalist Sally Quinn, has written a memoir, “A Different Life: Growing Up Learning Disabled and Other Adventures.”

Bradlee, 26, learned as a teenager that he has velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS), a genetic disorder that affects about one in 2,000 people or about 150,000 Americans. His book, written with publishing pro Jeff Himmelman, recounts the saga of a young man struggling to find himself amid medical complications and uncertainty.

In an interview with GMA’s Diane Sawyer, Sally Quinn says her son was once diagnosed as being “hopelessly retarded, and would be institutionalized, never go to high school, never go to college, no job, no relationship, no family. That was one of the low points.”

Bradlee has launched a website called FriendsofQuinn.com, and says he wants people with VCFS and all kinds of learning disabilities to know “it’s not the worst thing in the world.” The site offers resources for people with learning disabilities, as well as social networking and tips on schools and dating.

Bradlee reports that he has a girlfriend and lives in a group house next door to his parents.

See also:

• Quinn’s great expectations — Newsweek. An excerpt from Bradlee’s book.
• Sun, sea, sex — and oh shucks, Mom too — [UK] Times. An excerpt. As a teenager, Quinn Bradlee was eager to lose his virginity. A friend took him to a “house of ill repute.” The next morning, he told his mother …
• Excerpt: ‘A Different Life;’ Quinn Bradlee grew up with a battery of illnesses and a learning disability — ABC Good Morning America
• Newspaper editor’s son tackles his own disease in film — ABC News (June 24, 2007)

(Photo from USA Today)

From the BBC News:

Lucy Baxter says she has always wanted her son with Down syndrome to have an “ordinary” life like all young men his age, including having sex.

Otto, 21, has tried meeting girls at nightclubs and pubs with his friends, developing relationships with female friends, and using a “special” dating agency to find girls with Down syndrome.

“Unfortunately Otto is caught between two different worlds, two different cultures,” Lucy said. In the world of people without disabilities, she said, girls aren’t interested in pursuing a relationship with Otto. In the world of people with disabilities, she said, “everything is special and you’re treated like a child and the girls there very often have been treated like kids.”

Lucy said it is not just about getting her son sex.

“Sometimes he comes down in the morning and is sad. He just wants a girlfriend.”

Otto concurs: “I really do,” he said.

See also – Otto Baxter: When a mother is right to go public — by Liz Hunt in the [UK] Telegraph

An excerpt:

Those in the mental health community who know Lucy Baxter say she did not take the decision to go public lightly, and that Otto would have been involved at every stage. Her comments, they say, are not exploitative of her son but designed to provoke and initiate a long-overdue debate. They salute her courage. So do I.

(BBC News photo)

By Shawn Levy in the [Portland] Oregonian:

Gay rights advocates are reportedly complaining to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences about plans to give a humanitarian award to Jerry Lewis (left).

The comedian, who hosts an annual telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Society of America, has used anti-gay slurs in public at least twice in the past two years, once on his telethon and once on Australian radio. An excerpt:

… the Hersholt award isn’t for the head but the heart. In the vast, karmic scheme of things, this man has done far more good than bad. Trust me.

Earlier post here.

(Photo from [Portland] Oregonian.)

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

The rape of a woman with profound disabilities has highlighted troubling questions about the oversight exercised by Washington state over programs that provide home care to vulnerable adults. The rape was discovered when the woman miscarried; a DNA match pointed to a nursing assistant.

“I feel so betrayed,” said the woman’s mother. “I trusted them with my daughter. They made me guilty, too, because I could not protect her.”

“The obvious question is, if they don’t get pregnant, how do we know?” said Dick Sobsey, a Canadian expert on violence and disabilities. “Many of these cases are just never uncovered.”

From Reuters, UPI:

A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that women with disabilities are more likely than other women to experience violence at the hands of their spouse or partner.

Dr. Brian Armour reported that 37.3 percent of women with a disability reported violent abuse, compared with 20.6 percent of women without a disability. More than 30 percent said they had been hit, slapped, pushed, kicked or physically hurt by an intimate partner, double the rate of other women.

The report, which compiled data from a large annual telephone survey of Americans, was presented at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting in San Diego.

Press release from the American Public Health Association here.