Dignity for All
The University of Dayton’s mission as a Catholic and Marianist institution is rooted in the belief that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God and has a fundamental dignity that transcends faith, nationality, race, social status and identity. As such, the University is committed to being a place of welcome, respect and intellectual inquiry. By shedding light on hidden and incomplete histories, this blog post validates the dignity, agency and authorship of people and cultures underrepresented in libraries and curricula. Read more about UD’s mission.
Every July, Disability Pride Month commemorates the anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and provides greater visibility for continuing efforts to provide equality, justice and access to people with disabilities. This year, we celebrate Disability Pride Month by exploring the lived experiences of those who exist at the intersection of genderqueer and disability identities.
As a community that lives at the crossroads of two distinct yet similarly marginalized identities, many folks who are queer and have disabilities face a unique challenge that informs their work. This struggle comes not from their identities, but from how society treats them based on those identities. As a Catholic and Marianist institution, the University of Dayton affirms the dignity of all people. To honor and uplift their voices, we present the following resources.
Framing Resources
Let’s learn more about the concepts underpinning the queer disabled experience:
- Critical Disability Studies Collective
- “The Urgency of Intersectionality,” by Kimberlè Crenshaw
- Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability, by Robert McRuer
- Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Disability Studies, (UD login required)
- Definition: “queer theory,” Oxford English Dictionary (UD login required)
In Their Own Voices
Listen to and read about folks who are queer and disabled as they share their experience:
- The Joy of Just Being, by Keah Brown
- “Aairana Rose Philip on Attending Her Historic First Met Gala: ‘Girls, I’ve Made It,’” by Aariana Rose Philip
- “To Hold the Grief & the Growth: On Crip Ecologies,” by Kay Ulanday Barrett
- Disability Visibility podcast Episode 6: “Labor, Care Work, and Disabled Queer Femmes,” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Stacey Milbern
- “LGBTQ+ People with Disabilities,” Season 2, Episode 6 of the podcast I’m From Driftwood
- A Quiet Foghorn: More Notes from a Deaf Gay Life, by Raymond Luczak (UD login required)
- I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves, by Ryan O’Connell
- Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
- Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire, edited by Alice Wong
- Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From the Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong (UD login required)
- Queer Crips: Disabled Gay Men and Their Stories, edited by Bob Guter and John R. Killacky
Additional Resources
If you identity as queer and disabled or wish to support some who identifies as queer and disabled, you can find additional support from the resources below:
Self-Reflection
- What resource spoke the most to you? Why?
- In what ways does society compartmentalize people — causing people to see individuals as only disabled or only queer but never both?
- In what ways do you see varying combinations of ability, sexuality and gender interacting to create forms of privilege and oppression?