Why Intersectionality Matters During Pride

LGBTQ+ and Disability Pride have become linked every summer with back to back awareness months during summer. I’ve been reflecting on my own growth in understanding intersectionality and why it matters across both communities.

In high school and early college, I viewed disability as a very distinct and isolated identity. To me, disability seemed too different from other marginalized groups for there to be much overlap. I worried that linking advocacy efforts together somehow reduced the significance of disability specific issues and the fight against ableism. Looking back, I can see that I was approaching these topics through a lens of privilege that needed substantial readjustment. My mindset was essentially, “to each their own” for every minority group.

Over time, I became more knowledgeable, appreciative, and aware of the power of intersectionality. Attending a research university in the Southwest exposed me to an incredible diversity of people and perspectives. Over more than a decade, my world expanded. As an undergraduate, I joined a program called Initiative to Maximize Student Diversity (IMSD). It not only launched my research career but also introduced me to the value of intentionally bringing people from vastly different backgrounds together. Indigenous culture, disability, nonbinary gender identities, and many other lived experiences shared the same space. My limited rural high school worldview began to grow.

As a graduate student, I helped initiate a collaborative project focused on the academic needs within the highly diverse disability community. During a seven week project conducted over Zoom at the height of the pandemic, I connected with teachers, students, patients, nurses, family members, caregivers, and agencies from around the country. People brought different diagnoses, backgrounds, identities, and life experiences to the conversation. Many participants were also members of the LGBTQ+ community. Honestly, it was the first time I felt I had engaged with a truly representative cross section of people living with disabilities and chronic illnesses.

Later, during a three year postdoctoral position, the importance of intersectionality became even clearer. I was introduced to crip and queer theory by colleagues and researchers and could see it lived out in the people around me. Although health challenges prevented me from completing that position, I have since had the privilege of connecting with amazing people online who openly share what it means to embody both disability and queerness. Influential advocates like Andrew Gurza, along with scholars such as Dr. Marilyn Nicol who engage with critical disability theory, have also helped deepen my understanding by openly discussing the realities of living at the intersection of disability and queerness. Their stories and frameworks have reinforced for me that our identities are rarely singular. Diversity is woven through every part of who we are.

Today, I believe there is a critical need to elevate every voice within both LGBTQ+ and disability communities. Each group can have unique needs and priorities, but ableism and LGBTQ+ phobias often stem from the same impulse to marginalize difference. Solidarity does not erase specificity. It strengthens our collective ability to advocate for dignity, access, safety, and belonging.

Reducing someone to only their disability ignores the complexity and richness of who they are, including gender, sexuality, culture, race, religion, and countless other aspects of identity. Human rights belong to all humans. Period.