Close X
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
ADVT 
National

Party Aims To Give People With Disabilities A Chance To Explore Sexuality

The Canadian Press, 09 Aug, 2015 12:45 PM
    TORONTO — A party meant to give people with disabilities a chance to explore and express their sexuality is shining a spotlight on an enduring and often ignored barrier for those with physical and mental limitations.
     
    But though guests at the Deliciously Disabled party, to be held in Toronto next week, are free to act on their consensual desires, don't call it an orgy.
     
    "An orgy is when everybody comes together and has sex together," said Fatima Mechtab, one of the event's organizers. "This is a sex-positive play party."
     
    "The difference is that people can attend the event but they don't have to participate if they don't want to — they can be voyeurs, they can enjoy it like you would enjoy any other type of party... but then there's the added bonus of being able to be intimate with your partner or explore some sexual activity if you want to."
     
    The Aug. 14 event, a masquerade that will take place in a wheelchair-accessible theatre, is believed to be the first of its kind in Canada.
     
    Most discussions on accessibility focus on physical barriers, but the event's organizers said it's also important to look at the emotional and social hurdles that people with disabilities face, such as the widespread belief that they aren't sexual beings.
     
    "Access (to sexuality) is such a major barrier for people with disabilities — I don't think there's any other group in society that, depending on the level of their physical limitation, can't even pleasure themselves sexually," said Stella Palikarova, a disability awareness consultant.
     
    "You can imagine trying to go through life being completely unable to have any sort of sexual relief or even to think that you are perceived by others as being sexually desirable or a sexual person," said Palikarova, who uses a wheelchair.
     
    "That becomes a really major human rights issue for me."
     
    Palikarova, Mechtab and Andrew Morrison-Gurza, another disability awareness consultant, began planning the event several months ago but struggled to find an appropriate venue.
     
    Mechtab, who works at the Toronto sex club Oasis Aqualounge, initially suggested holding it there, but quickly realized the historic building isn't wheelchair accessible. 
     
    Finding a location that was both accessible and allowed nudity and sex proved a challenge, she said.
     
    The group eventually booked the Buddies in Bad Times theatre, not far from Oasis. The space can hold 125 people including roughly 25 wheelchairs. Tickets are $20 each.
     
    Personal support workers can attend for free, and there will be interpreters for the hearing impaired.
     
    The event is set to take place during the Parapan Am Games, which began Friday and end next weekend. The international competition has drawn more than 1,000 athletes with disabilities to the Toronto region.
     
    Palikarova said the timing isn't purely coincidental.
     
    "Some of the athletes perhaps might be interested in coming to an event like this," she said.
     
    As buzz around the event grows, a spokeswoman with the Council of Canadians With Disabilities said the issue the party seeks to highlight is an important one.
     
    "The reality is that we are sexual beings," said vice-chair Path Danforth. "It's an issue that remains seldom talked about, which I find quite bizarre."
     
    Danforth, who uses a wheelchair, said she's met a number of individuals with significant disabilities who've told her "no one ever gave them permission before to be sexual."
     
    "With this event, one of the things it will do is it will give people permission to have an opportunity to explore their own sexuality," she said. "If it's in such a way that it's demonstrating a healthy take on sexuality, then that's a good thing. It makes people aware and it makes some people less uncomfortable."

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Tornado Touches Down In Southwestern Ontario Village Amid Severe Weekend Storms

    Tornado Touches Down In Southwestern Ontario Village Amid Severe Weekend Storms
    Environment Canada issued a statement that said the violent winds of up to 220 kilometres per hour occurred in Teviotdale, northwest of Kitchener.

    Tornado Touches Down In Southwestern Ontario Village Amid Severe Weekend Storms

    Stephen Harper Urges Canada To Stay The Course, While Trudeau Urges Opposite

    Stephen Harper Urges Canada To Stay The Course, While Trudeau Urges Opposite
    LAVAL, Que. — One day after Stephen Harper crashed a Liberal stronghold in Montreal, Justin Trudeau returned the favour Monday, rallying supporters in the heart of Conservative country and taking aim at the government's economic record.

    Stephen Harper Urges Canada To Stay The Course, While Trudeau Urges Opposite

    Montreal Cabbie Arrested On Assault Charge After Allegedly Driving At Two Men

    Montreal Cabbie Arrested On Assault Charge After Allegedly Driving At Two Men
    A Montreal cabbie who allegedly hit two people on purpose with his vehicle has been arrested and is facing a charge of assault with a weapon.

    Montreal Cabbie Arrested On Assault Charge After Allegedly Driving At Two Men

    Wynne Flexes Ontario's Electoral Muscle, Calls For Defeat Of Harper Government

    Wynne Flexes Ontario's Electoral Muscle, Calls For Defeat Of Harper Government
    OTTAWA — Kathleen Wynne wasted no time Sunday flexing Ontario's electoral muscle, wading into the federal election on Day 1 of the marathon campaign to call for the defeat of Stephen Harper's Conservative government.

    Wynne Flexes Ontario's Electoral Muscle, Calls For Defeat Of Harper Government

    Congress Protests, Opposition Unites Against Suspension

    Congress Protests, Opposition Unites Against Suspension
    Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and vice president Rahul Gandhi, joined a noisy protest at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the parliament complex -- all of them sporting a black band on thier arms.

    Congress Protests, Opposition Unites Against Suspension

    Huma Abedin, Former Indian-American Aide To Hillary Clinton Under Investigation

    Huma Abedin, Former Indian-American Aide To Hillary Clinton Under Investigation
    A former Indian-American aide to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is being probed for allegedly accepting overpayments from the State Department while working for the then US secretary of state, media reported on Tuesday.

    Huma Abedin, Former Indian-American Aide To Hillary Clinton Under Investigation