Pleasure, sex, prohibition, intellectual disability, and dangerous ideas

Abstract

The sexual lives of people with intellectual disability continue to be the subject of prohibition and restriction by disability sectors. Without access to sex education and the concomitant sex literacy, people with intellectual disability are denied the essential conversation about sex, sexual expression, and pleasure. The authors explore the history of sexual repression of people with intellectual disability, and the culture of sexual disempowerment. This propositional paper offers a sense of hope about sex facilitation and sex education for people with intellectual disability which can afford them a full life.