Breaking Down Barriers: Celebrating the Intersection of Deaf and LGBTQ+ Identities
Liam O’Dell is an award-winning freelance journalist and campaigner specializing in deafness, disability and social media. photo credit: Ant Belle.
Rainbow flags wave in the air, accompanied by cheers that encourage Pride Parade members marching down the street. It’s London Pride in 2019, and Deaf and disabled journalist Liam O’Dell is marching with UK charity Royal National Institute for Deaf People. As he walks by the crowds, he gives a round of “deaf applause,” waving open hands near his face, and to O’Dell’s delight, the crowd responds in silent enthusiasm.
Later that day over burgers, O’Dell comes out to his friends as asexual, a person who experiences very little to no sexual attraction. Until that point, he was unsure of sexuality and if he deserved to be in the parade in place of a confidently queer person who was not questioning their identity as he was. However, the Q in LGBTQ+ is known to stand for both “Queer” and “Questioning,” which embraces the fluidity of sexuality.
“I didn't know whether I was one of those people who would [never] feel sexual attraction at all, or if after I found the right person. The idea of being sexually attracted to someone after a strong emotional bond is formed is demisexual,” O’Dell said. “But right now, I'm not feeling the same sexual attraction that other people do.”
In his reporting, O’Dell covers the Deaf and Disabled community, and because Deaf LGBTQ Awareness Week is April 3-9, we want to honor our Queer and Deaf siblings who are advocating for accessibility and inclusivity. In a 2022 study by the Trevor Project, around 5% of 40,001 LGBTQ+ youth reported as being deaf or hard of hearing and 25% of deaf LGBTQ+ youth reported difficulty in meeting their needs, demonstrating the necessity for improved accessibility across the queer community.
The Social Model of Disability
Deaf people face stigmas from people who may believe “if deafness is viewed as a disability, then people who are deaf carry with them the stigma of "lacking" a typical human characteristic,” according to Disability Studies Quarterly. O’Dell, who is also autistic, believes in the social model of disability, which is the idea that it’s not your conditions which empower or disable you, but rather, the wider societal attitudes that come with it.
“A wheelchair user becomes disabled when there's no ramp or lift, and I'm disabled when there's no subtitles for screenings at a cinema, so in that respect, deafness can be a disability,” O’Dell said. “Deaf culture has its own sign language, language choices, and it has its own specific cultural identity that separates it from the disabled community. For so many deaf and disabled people, the identities that they have are so integral to who they are, that if they were to “cure” that part of their identity, you kind of strip away what is a fundamental part of yourself.”
Societal Narratives Around Deaf and Disabled Sexuality
In the journey of embracing his own identity, O’Dell has noticed that wider societal narratives around disability tend to view deaf or disabled people as either hypersexualized and fetishized, or people who don’t have sexual encounters, experiences, or desires.
“You then put an asexual disabled person into the equation, because you want to present yourself as having autonomy and being proud of yourself,” O’Dell said of his own experiences. “But you're in a community which is constantly being viewed on one end of a sexual extreme as sexless or sexualized, and when you're going into it as someone who doesn't experience sexual attraction, it's very much the middle ground, and that can be very interesting for media to pick up on.”
Creating Inclusive Spaces in the LGBTQ+ Community
O’Dell has personally found plenty of connections and support from across the spectrum of sexualities in the Deaf community, thanks to the internet. On the flip side, he’s found that the queer community, and society in general, could be more inclusive towards Deaf people. Deaf LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to struggle with depression or suicide, making accessible resources and communities vital to a better quality of life.
“It breaks my heart that there are a lot of LGBTQ+ educators out there who do fantastic work, but they're just not making that content accessible,” O’Dell said. “They're not captioning their content, not adding alt text in their images on Instagram, or trigger warnings. There might be other Deaf or disabled questioning folk who are in a similar journey to what I was going through, trying to access resources that might give them answers that they need.”
We can caption our own digital content or advocate for the presence of interpreters for live events. There are over 300 sign languages in the world, and even in the United States, American Sign Language, Plains Indian Sign Language, and Black American Sign Language are all filled with their own unique nuances in communication. If you’re interested in getting involved with Deaf LGBT Awareness Week 2023, head to National Association of the Deaf, Deaf Queer Resource Center, and Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf for more information on events.
