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> I am dismayed at the way that members of this list are distancing themselves > from the issue of homophobia. Are there no disabled people who happen to be > gay? I think not. I am not an active member of this list however I do look > through the mail generated by this list. I was not distancing myself and suspected that any attempt to inhibit the flow would be misinterpreted this way. Ten years ago I worked closely with Tuppy Owen from Outsiders which exists to provide social and sexual outlets of all persuasions for disabled people. I am aware that the medical profession largely ignores these and will prefer to treat a perfectly normal expression of sexual interest or frustration as something to be "cured" rather than faced. I fully realise that many disabled students at university may well get less than they had hoped for if their social life becomes an unfulfilled mess and would regard dis-forum as a perfectly natural place to say so and so consider what we, as support officers, might do to help. But what has this to do with a very general protest- however deserving- if it is not what dis-forum is for. >To be honest it does not strike me > as a discussion list, unlike the other mailbase lists that have been > established. Most members seem only to be concerned with the practicalities > that are required for solving problems that individuals with a disability > are faced with. Oh good, we seem to be getting something right. > There seems to be little mention of the emotional aspects, > the stereotyping of them by society etc. I subscribe to a list that often has this sort of traffic and I doubt if most of dis-forum's members would stay five minutes if we went that way. Sorry It is very easy to set up a mailbase and takes less than a few minutes, why use this one or blame it if it doesn't want to be all things to all people? To repeat, the social problems of disabled students- fine, -general issues of sexuality should surely be able to find somewhere else more appropriate. Dave Laycock MBE Head of CCPD, Chair of NFAC Computer Centre for People with Disabilities University of Westminster 72 Great Portland Street London W1N 5AL tel. 0171-911-5161 fax. 0171-911-5162 WWW home page: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/ccpd/ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%