PISSAR’s Critically Queer and Disabled Politics
One of the most exciting and potentially productive sites for queer coalitional politics
may be, ironically enough, the articulation of the everyday concerns of GLBTs and the disabled.
I say ironically enough because many members of these communities, save those who live in the
intersections of these identities, have worked and continue to work to untangle the perceived
negative associations of one with the other.
Therefore, to link the interests of GLBTs and the
disabled may seem, at least initially, counterintuitive and politically risky. At the same time, in a
liberal-democratic polity that only sometimes tolerates GLBTs, the continued vitality and
vibrancy of GLBT and queer politics is dependent largely upon the ability of these advocates to
develop forms of coalitional politics that articulate their modalities of domination to the interests
of other similarly situated groups.
Narrowing down the larger topic of GLBT and/or queer politics, my interest here is how
transpeople and the disabled have found common cause through their activism. Despite their
obvious differences, they negotiate a number of similar issues, and their explicit articulation may
prove useful in forging political alliances. These common experiences include: difficulties, if not
outright discrimination, in securing a job, education, and/or housing; demonization and/or
condemnation by religious officials; violence from perpetrators of hate crimes; and, familial and
To this list I would add another issue which may at first glance seem trivial, yet,
upon further consideration, is crucial for participation in public activities: safe and accessible
Public bathrooms are far from a trivial concern given that practices of citizenship are
enabled and constrained by their availability. First, public bathrooms provide explicit physical
markers of the gendered and abled expectations of the bodies in that area.
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