Taking your first steps. Riding a bike. Your first kiss. The first time you have sex. All standard rites of passage for anyone growing up in much of the world. But what if you never took your first step? What if you couldn’t ride a bike? What if the disability you were born with distanced you socially? What if there never was a first time?

Asta Philpot, 25, is a confident, extroverted person, similar to many other British men in their 20s. But he was born with arthogryposis, a condition that severely limits the movement in his limbs. Last year, he chose to lose his virginity in a licensed Spanish brothel. This year he took two other disabled men on a bus trip to the same brothel, filmed by BBC’s One Life. “When I was younger I had a friend and we always used to talk about relationships. He had muscular dystrophy and passed away without having a sexual experience. Why should people struggle for that experience?”, Asta says.

:: via the beeb ::

I support legalization and regulation of prostitution. I would argue that the current trafficking problem is a result of a black market that emerges as a result of illegalization. I definitely support this guy going to a prostitute and taking his friends, but what if it scales?

In the small town of Zeist, Holland a small squad of Dutch “nurses” is going above and beyond whatever you may think the term “physical care for the disabled” entails. According to an article in the 2 April edition of the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera (www.corrieredellasera.it) the alternative healthcare group “Sar di Zeist in Holland” is the first group of its kind in the world that tries to meet the intimate needs of disabled men and women. “Sar” is a Dutch term that describes Holland’s permissive culture in general, and this type of Dutch “health care” in particular.

But lest you think that this practice is a dressed up term for prostitution, then think again: The Sar di Zeist has been around since 1982 and averages about 2500 “consensual” sexual relations each year. This according to the group’s founder Rene’ Vercoutre – handicapped and confined to a wheelchair since the age of 15. According to a translated article on www.ufch.dk, Vercoutre — father of two and divorced – never considered sexual abstinence an option despite his disabilities. So he organized the Sar di Zeist to help others — male and female — with similar needs. The organization is run entirely by volunteers. The Corriere Della Sera quoted Vercoutre as saying, “…a typical “encounter” lasts about 90 minutes and costs about 85 euro…” A portion of that amount goes towards running the Sar’s “call center” and the rest goes towards expenses of the facilitator.

:: via Associated Content ::

Here’s a quote from EscortsForTheDisabled.com

For many years, society and even doctors have tried to deny the sexuality of disabled persons, or to portray them as asexual. We at ESCORTSFORTHEDISABLED refute this, utterly. Everyone on this planet has a need — and the right! — to express their sensual selves. We celebrate sexuality in all of its myriad forms, and embrace them. In doing so, we are touched on a deeper, and ultimately, more profound level.

This struck a note with me. It’s obvious that the rights defined in the constitution are not the sum cannon of what people in a just society are entitled to. Given that, I’m interested in thinking about what rights haven’t been fully defined and maybe consensual sex is one of them.

The Founder/CEO of escortsforthedisable/d.com has severe Cerebral Palsy! This is our world too!

So if consenting sex is a right, and it scales does the government have an obligation to provide/facilitate it?

HOBART, September 30, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – According to an apparently unembarrassed official of the Department of Health and Human Services in the Australian state of Tasmania, guidelines have been established that allow care givers to organise visits for disabled clients to Hobart’s local brothels. Disability Services state manager Michael Plaister said to The Mercury newspaper, “What we’ve got is a longstanding policy based around the principles of human rights that people with disabilities have the same rights as anyone else in the community and are entitled to be assisted to exercise those rights.”

Disability Services’ guidelines include a section developed in 2001, titled “Access to a Sex Worker.” It states, “Sex workers should be seen as one of a number of options to consider when supporting people with disabilities to make decisions about their sexual needs.” The report in The Mercury says that though the men usually pay for the services themselves, guidelines exist for social service funds to be made available should they be strapped for cash.

In Denmark, the government has arranged a more regimented system in which the social services pays for “sex workers” to service disabled men twice a month. The Danish guidelines state, “It could be of great importance that the carer speaks to the prostitute together with the person in their care, to help them express their wishes.”

:: via LifeSite::

AND if you’re a Deaf Lesbian, there is a website just for you http://www.deaflesbian.net/

I’d just like to close this blog post by reminding people that in our country we are busy debating if we should give out condoms in schools. Simultaneously, many people are baffled by our teen pregnancy rate. AND we have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the industrialized world.

Thinking about this a bit further:
-Given the current socioeconomic status of most prostitutes, I’m dubious that true consent in terms of prostitution actually exists.
-Over the years I’ve known 5 women who were “sex workers,” 4 of them were doing it to fund a coke habit. Were they being exploited? I say yes.
-Consensual Sex may already be covered in the constitution under the right to privacy. So this might not be an issue of defining new rights but actually making sure that current rights are actually implemented.