I'm 28 and have had a disability since birth. I use a wheelchair, and a ventilator helps me breathe. As you can probably guess, I'm not getting any. I've managed to do a few things with my life, like go to law school and get a decent job. But my sexual experience is pretty much nil. I used to think that I could attract women through my intellect and charm. Now I'm more realistic. I understand that some physical characteristics are simply too much for people to deal with on a romantic level. At the same time, I know people with disabilities who are in happy, healthy relationships with able-bodied partners.

So I understand your response, Dan, but I wish you would have not sounded so bleak. It's hard enough being disabled without having negative attitudes reinforced by a writer who probably doesn't know anyone with a disability. At the very least, Dan, you could have told DD to actually make the effort to take his friend out to meet people. DD's pen-pal idea just sets his friend up to be bombarded with e-mails from people who are motivated by pity. People with disabilities don't deserve to be objects of pity. Disabled people should be treated like anyone else.

Mark

Let me see if I follow you: First you slam me for painting a harsh but completely realistic picture for DD's friend. Then you go on to say that I should've gone easy on DD's friend because it's hard enough being disabled without having your nose rubbed in reality. Then you wind things up by insisting that an able-bodied person's interactions with a disabled person shouldn't be motivated by pity. That's a bit of a contradiction, don't you think?

I don't go easy on anyone in this column, Mark, not young people, old people, straight, gay, bi, or able-bodied people. In the spirit of treating a disabled person like I would treat anyone else, I was as blunt with DD and his friend as I would be with anyone else. Was my advice painful? I don't doubt that it was, Mark, but I didn't write it with malice.

According to DD, his friend suffers from "traumatic brain damage," is missing a limb, and his speech is slurred. Any one of those three things would interfere with a man's love life; all three together are going to seriously hamper DD's efforts to find his friend a girlfriend because, as you put it, "some physical characteristics are simply too much for people to deal with on a romantic level." While some people may think my advice for DD's friend was cruel, I think it's far crueler to fill someone with false or unrealistic hopes.

Finally, I didn't say that DD's friend would never find a partner. My Aunt Judy (a.k.a. Madam Sin) is in a wheelchair and breathes with a ventilator, and she's got a swell boyfriend. So, yeah, I know for a fact that disabled people can and do find partners. I also know for a fact that my Aunt Judy is a very lucky woman. If my aunt were single, I wouldn't want her to be miserable, and I would give her the same advice I gave DD's friend.

Let me send a ray of hope to the poor dude with the missing leg, slurred speech, and brain injury. A pal of mine works for an organization that takes paralyzed people sailing. She always remarks on how ALL the shriveled, sputtering guys in wheelchairs had physically normal girlfriends, but none of the women in wheelchairs had boyfriends at all. She chalked it up to the fact that women love to nurture and heal while men are bastards who don't give a fuck about inner beauty. The point is, there are lots of disabled dudes with girlfriends. Tell this guy to get out there with the rest of the gimps and start socializing! Sign me...

Go, Gimp, Go!

Thanks for sharing, you sensitive motherfucker.

I'm a bi, crip woman in my 40s who's had plenty of wild, wacky sex throughout the years without paying. True, I've had to initiate it by placing or responding to personal ads, but the occasional curiosity-seeker who is willing to go the distance is richly rewarded! Although I prefer able-bodied partners and/or those who don't drool, tell the guy that there are disabled dating services online. For a nominal fee (or free), he gets himself listed on services for those people actually seeking disabled partners.

CripBabe In NYC

Thanks for sharing, CBINYC.

Your advice to the friend of a person with traumatic brain injury [TBI] was right on. I have worked with several social service agencies that have clients with TBI, and I can tell you this much: Most of my clients were young males who had been drinking and driving. These men will NEVER have sex again with the women they desired before their injuries. Most of these men cannot accept the fact that they are no longer desirable to the general female population and refuse to meet women from the one group that would find them desirable: Females with TBI. My advice to the TBI gentleman is to join a TBI support group. I know of at least one couple who met this way and are currently getting it on.

Do I Have To Signoff With Some Stupid Name

Thanks for writing, DIHTSWSSN, and thanks for giving me an opportunity to address a pet peeve of mine:

I get a lot of mail from disabled/ugly/fat/old people complaining about shallow able-bodied/pretty/thin/young people who refuse to date them. "Why can't able-bodied/pretty/thin/young people appreciate me for how beautiful I am on the inside?" they write. "Dan, you should scold the able-bodied/pretty/thin/young for being so hurtful and shallow!"

When I suggest to these disabled/ugly/fat/old folks that they might have better luck dating other people who are disabled/ugly/fat/old, they invariably respond, "But I'm only attracted to people who are able-bodied/pretty/thin/young!" What this means, of course, is that the disgruntled disabled/ugly/fat/old folks who write me are every bit as shallow as the able-bodied/pretty/thin/young ones they're writing in to complain about.

In this week's column, CripBabe in NYC writes that she prefers "able-bodied partners and/or those who don't drool," and disabled Mark writes that he takes comfort when he sees "people with disabilities who are in happy, healthy relationships with able-bodied partners." I'm not saying that CripBabe or Mark are shallow--God forbid--I'm only pointing out that disabled people (like fat people, old people, ugly people) often have the same cultural biases as the rest of us. People who want others to "see the beauty within" should, as a matter of principle, take off their own blinders.

Your advice to Disabled Dilemma was right on. As a motorcyclist, though, I thought your response would have been improved had you reminded your motorcycle-riding readers to avoid DD's fate by riding helmeted and sober.

Amy

Right you are, Amy. Wear those helmets, kids, or wind up brain-damaged and droolin'.

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