Everyone, including all disabled people, deserves the right to comprehensive, science-based sexual education that includes anatomy, reproduction, STIs, preventing pregnancy, including all genders and sexual orientations, and which affirms the necessity of affirmative consent for all activities.
That kind of education is important, necessary, and a human right.
HAVING SAID THAT.
The right to have sex does not depend on being adequately educated.
Two cases of disabled people being prosecuted for having sex with other consenting adult disabled people have made news recently.
Even among people who recognize this as injustice -- even among self-identified disability rights advocates -- people have responded with conditional support.
"As long as they've had sex ed," these prosecutions are wrong. Or "As long as someone is making sure they understand." Or "As long as they know how to use protection." "As long as..." some condition is met, then they should have the legal right to have consensual sex.
Again I will reiterate that yes, everyone should have comprehensive sex ed. However, sex ed is not like driver's ed. It's not a test you have to pass to get your sex license.
Abled people are not held to this standard. While, unfortunately, many abled people lack adequate sex education, in no circumstances is sex with a sexually ignorant abled person a criminal offense.
An issue I've written about in a few different contexts on this page is how denying autonomy to targeted populations (disabled people, women, young adults) is defended on the basis of "protecting" them from sexual exploitation. But autonomy can't be conditional. It's a human right for all humans.
This is aside from the practical concerns of making disabled people's right to sexuality contingent on "if they've had sex ed" -- parents and family members can intentionally deny sex education to their disabled relatives, then have their relatives' partners prosecuted.
Furthermore, what most people primarily mean by "sex ed" for disabled people is "how to prevent pregnancy" -- and while everyone absolutely should learn how to prevent pregnancy, making this a condition for the right to sexual autonomy sets the stage for disabled people's planned, wanted pregnancies to be cited as evidence of "not understanding" pregnancy prevention.
Putting conditions and limits on disabled people's right to sexual autonomy doesn't promote sex ed. It promotes disabled people's status as second-class citizens.
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