Let’s Talk: Pride Without Exception: LGBTQIA+ Identity, Disability, and the Role of Direct Support Professionals

​Happy Pride Month! Pride is not a monolith. It belongs to every person who has been told by systems, by society, or by silence that they are too complicated to be fully seen. For people with intellectual, developmental, physical, or psychiatric disabilities who also identify as LGBTQIA+, that experience of invisibility can be doubled, and the path to self-affirmation uniquely complex.

This pride season and every day of the year, it matters to name this intersection plainly: disability and queer identity coexist. They always have.

On this month’s Let’s Talk webinar, we’re discussing the role of direct support professionals and pride. John Raffaele, NADSP Director of Educational Services, will join Dr. Gennifer Herley to discuss her article, “Pride Without Exception: LGBTQIA+ Identity, Disability, and the Role of Direct Support Professionals.”

 This live webinar is a companion to the most recent International Journal for Direct Support Professionals issue. ASL interpretation and closed captions will be available during the webinar. To review previous issues of The International Journal for Direct Support Professionals, click here.