In this discussion, Blessol, a queer social rights activist from Kenya, shares insights on the intersectionality between disability rights and LGBTQI+ advocacy. The conversation explores the socio-economic challenges faced by queer persons with disabilities, the formation of coalitions bridging these movements, and the role of intersectionality in advancing human rights. Blessol discusses the challenges of mainstream LGBTQI+ organizing in addressing disability, the limitations posed by funding silos, and the importance of recognizing disabled individuals as sexual beings.
About Belssol: Blessol Gathoni is Queer Social Rights Activist, Community Organizer and HR Advisor within the LGBTIQ community and Bunge La Wamama Mashinani. She has been involved in handling pertinent issues around class and economic oppression within her community and linking it to the wider socio- economic struggles in Kenya. Her interest has keenly been working in the grassroots by being part and parcel of the struggles within and acquiring in depth understandings of what capacities one has to exercising their own freedoms and sexualities based on the class and gender they are assigned. (extracted from- https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/blessol-gathoni)