Do you have a more nuanced view? And if so what do you think the key practical things to consider are? Many health professionals (and family carers) react to this by effectively requiring celibacy. Me: Something that comes up a lot in any discussion of intellectually disability and sex is the issue of consent – not just the obvious issues, but also including recent court cases that resulted in court ordered abortions (and denial of abortions). I now don’t do any writing or work which is not to do with disability, and am currently writing a very outspoken book for health professionals on sex and disability, which will be published by Jessica Kingsley (if they don’t become too scared) this year. Producing an annual diary gave me spare time, hence having the time to run the Outsiders Club, which has always been my main focus, and unpaid. Tuppy: I don’t feel I was ever what you could call “mainstream” but I started off as a zoologist and switched to publishing my own sex manuals, using my own photography and text, and later the annual The Sex Maniac’s Diary for 23 years - all progressive and certainly not conforming to the norm. Me: It’s here actually, but we should certainly take the better worded one… ? Tuppy: Where on earth did you find this title? I hope it was “Sensual Patron Saint of Disabled People?”! Would you say sex and disability is a real focus of your work, or is this the natural result of “Many people talk about sex without regard to people with disabilities – but Tuppy Owens talks about *everybody*”? Me: You’ve been referred to as “The Sensual Patron Saint of the Disabled”, but a lot of your work, particularly earlier in your career, is more mainstream. It should be fairly obvious that some of this content may make some of my more straight-laced readers blush… Her wikipedia page is here, and I regret that we only had time for a tiny percentage of the questions I wanted to ask… She’s also written an astonishing range of books on sex, disability and sex *and* disability.
#Disabled sex toys for gay men professional#
She also runs the Sex and Disability Helpline, and was a founder of the TLC-Trust, which ‘connects disabled men & women to responsible sex workers & professional sexual advocates’. Tuppy Owens is a qualified sex therapist and the founder of Outsiders, which supports disabled people to find partners. Following on from the interview we did recently with Paraclimbing World Champion Fran Brown, and then David Niemeijer, Founder and CEO of AssistiveWare, we have a special one today….