Harvard Law LGBT group tackles disability in the queer community

In an effort to raise awareness of the barriers that disabled people face in gaining access to LGBT community spaces, Harvard Law School Lambda (HLS Lambda) will host "Radical Access: The politics of inclusion for Queer Disabled People in Queer Community," a forum to be held at Harvard Law School on April 21 at 7:15 p.m.

"I really feel like this is a neglected area in LGBT issues," said Rachel Frazier, one of the organizers of "Radical Access." For instance, she noted that during HLS Lambda's February Harvard Lambda Legal Advocacy Conference, a participant expressed concern that many lesbian events in Cambridge are held at bars that are inaccessible to those with physical disabilities. "It's kind of human nature to look around at crowds and say, well I don't see any accessibility needs here so we must not have any accessibility needs."

The free public event will include dinner and features a panel of three speakers: Dr. AndreA Neumann Mascis, a clinical psychologist who practices at The Meeting Point in Jamaica Plain; Samuel Lurie, a transman who helped organize the inaugural Queer Disability Conference in San Francisco in 2001 and Martina Robinson, the openly bisexual Green-Rainbow Party candidate for lieutenant governor in 2006.

Neumann Mascis, who works with many clients who are both queer and disabled, wants "Radical Access" to help other recognize that disabled LGBT people wishing to have a voice in the LGBT community or participate in events are "structurally blocked" from doing so, because the gatherings are held in venues that cannot accommodate a variety of disabilities, for instance in spaces with no wheelchair ramps for elevator access. A lack of accommodation for those with visual and hearing impairments is also a common problem, said Neumann Mascis. "It becomes a way of being excluded or disenfranchised by a group of people who are themselves really focused on inclusion," she said. "So it becomes this kind of double indemnity of feeling disenfranchised in the larger culture then specifically not having access to the aspects of being part of [LGBT] community that are healing and empowering and exciting."

Neumann Mascis said that in order for the structural barriers to be removed, the LGBT community must develop a cultural ethic predicated on an awareness that LGBT spaces need to be accessible to everyone who wishes to participate.

"There's a broad range of structural improvements that could facilitate access," she said, "but in order for those structural improvements to happen we have to have a cultural priority - as queer community we have to say that everyone who is part of queer community gets to participate in this event. So when we create an event the first thing we are going to attend to is all of the resources and all of the structural factors needed to make sure that everyone who isn't part of our community gets to participate."

She added, "If we don't start with something that is obviously an important value within the culture of queer community; that anyone who is queer gets to participate in the things that we do. If we can start there then the structural solutions, the logistical solutions the financial solutions can all be responded to creatively."

Needless to say, organizers of next week's event want to make sure that the event is accessible to all comers. The discussion will take place in a flat room that is accessible by elevator and will be ASL interpreted. Those needing other accommodations are encouraged to contact organizers as soon as possible.

"It is called 'Radical access,'" Frazier said with a laugh. "So we're trying."

For more information contact Lela Klein [email protected]. If you need accommodations based on a disability, please call Thann Scoggin at 617-384-7215 or e-mail [email protected]. If you would like to request parking for the event, please contact Marie A. Trottier, Harvard University Disability Coordinator at 617-495-1859 or [email protected].