Pride needs to be accessible to LGBTQIA+ with disabilities, says activist

Walks, parties and concerts are some of the events often associated with LGBTQIA+ pride. In addition to personal, family and social barriers to celebrating diversity in these venues, some community members are excluded from these events due to lack of accessibility. Facing this problem is the goal of Priscila Siqueira, founder and president of the non-governmental organization Vale PCD, which started as a collective in 2019 and today carries out a national mapping of accessibility in places aimed at the LGBTQIA+ public. During Pride Month, the 29-year-old psychologist spoke to Agência Brasil about the importance of participating and accessing these steps, which are part of the process of discovering, accepting and experiencing the identities and sexual orientations that make up the acronym. “Since I was very young, I attended LGBT spaces, but I never saw other people with disabilities in these spaces. I went to lectures, conversation circles, but I didn’t see intersectionality being debated. I only saw that plastered LGBT agenda, and I didn’t see myself there . It was very difficult for me to feel welcomed”. she says, who, even so, says that this coexistence was important. “I only recognized myself as a bisexual woman and I only strengthened myself by leaving home, living with people, meeting new people. And people with disabilities often do not have this possibility, precisely because of the barrier of accessibility, overprotection and social empowerment “. The result is uncomfortable and embarrassing situations, in which people with disabilities end up having to be carried due to the lack of ramps or platforms, or simply unable to remain in the spaces. These experiences make them lose the desire to leave the house, says Priscila, which is essential for LGBTQIA+ pride. “Accessibility is the last thing to be thought of at a party, a show or a big event. We have been trying to change this reality in some way, but we have a lot of difficulty being present in the spaces. In the end, these people stop attending the spaces to not go through this kind of thing. We are left out and cannot be so proud, we keep watching everyone living their lives and actively participating and we are left out because they are not thinking about all the possibilities of existence and all bodies”. At Vale PCD, in addition to promoting accessibility in spaces, the work carried out includes psychotherapy. Priscila Siqueira warns that social exclusion makes you sick, and there is no supply of trained professionals to deal with PWD mental health. “I didn’t see myself as a person who could practice my profession [de psicóloga], because I didn’t see other people with disabilities exercising. I didn’t have anything about PCD mental health in college. PCD mental health is left out. There is mental health made for white, straight, cis, standard, non-disabled men”, she says, who sees something similar in the discussion on accessibility. “There is a PCD stereotype. When you talk about a person with a disability, what comes to mind is a white man in a wheelchair. And when you talk about accessibility, what you think is just a ramp, but we know that’s not exactly it”. In the NGO’s team, Priscila, who has dwarfism, gathers amputees, autistic people, wheelchair users and people with rare diseases, in addition to other disabilities, so that each one contributes with their experiences, making the proposed accessibility broader. The service to people who seek shelter shows issues that many LGBTQIA+ can identify with, such as the difficulty of having self-esteem in a community that values ​​bodies that follow a certain standard. The exclusion of pride promotion spaces, however, means that PCDs have a longer path to conquer it. “The affective issue is very denied, especially in the LGBTQIA+ environment. The person without a disability often does not know how to cope and thinks that he or she will have to be a caregiver for the person with a disability. And there is also an erasure of sexuality, because there is a lot of infantilization of the PCD body. We are not seen as people who feel desire, and this prevents us from relating”.

Agência Brasil