Webinar: Gender, Sexuality, and Disability
Click here for a transcript of this webinar.
Successfully advocating for the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQIA+ people requires an understanding of how these identities intersect with disability. How are the disability rights and disability justice movements intertwined with feminist and LGBTQIA+ activism? Where are the connections between disability and reproductive rights, economic security, and gender-based violence? Join New York Women’s Foundation President and CEO Ana Oliveira in conversation with disability activists Victoria M. Rodríguez-Roldán, Robin Wilson-Beattie, and Leslie Templeton to learn about the intersections between disability-, gender-, and sexuality-related oppression and to explore philanthropy’s role in supporting meaningful community-based solutions to advance equity.
This free webinar was the third of a four-part series focusing on the connections between disability and key social justice issues, made possible by the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy. We encourage you to visit our curated selection of resources on the connections between gender, sexuality, disability.
About the Panelists
Moderator: President and CEO, New York Women’s Foundation, and member of the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy
Ana L. Oliveira has been a voice and a force for change in improving the lives of those people in the greatest need for more than 30 years. As President and CEO, she leads the New York Women’s Foundation mission to create an equitable and just future for women and families. The Foundation achieves its goal by uniting cross-cultural and community alliances that ignite action through innovative and bold justice-oriented solutions. During her tenure with The Foundation, Oliveira has increased annual grantmaking from $1.7M to more than $8M today. By the end of 2021, The Foundation will have distributed over $100 million to more than 500 organizations, impacting millions of women and girls since its creation in 1987.
Panelist: Victoria M. Rodríguez-Roldán
Victoria M. Rodríguez-Roldán is the Senior Policy Manager for AIDS United, where she brings her own unique intersectional specialties to the fight against the HIV epidemic. Particular areas of expertise and focus are the intersections of issues affecting people living at the intersections of transgender identity, disability and mental illness through a social justice lens. She frequently speaks on discrimination issues impacting the trans and disability communities. She has been profiled in multiple national media outlets and has been published in multiple academic journals. Prior to joining AIDS United, she was senior policy counsel at the National LGBTQ Task Force where she led the Trans/GNC Justice Project and the Disability Justice Project. She currently serves in the board of directors of the Autistic Women and Non-Binary Network, of HIPS, an organization dedicated to harm reduction for sex work and drug use in the District of Columbia, of Equality New York, the Empire State’s leading LGBTQ equality organization. Victoria holds a B.A. in psychology with honors from the University of Puerto Rico, and a J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law. She lives in the Washington, D.C. area.
Panelist: Robin Wilson-Beattie
Robin Wilson-Beattie is a speaker, writer, and advocate for disability and sexuality as well as one of the first people to talk about disability, sexuality, and marketing to adult product retailers and manufacturers. She combines years of personal experience with medically sound research to provide a unique perspective on how life and identity impacts one’s sexual expression. Her speaking engagements include multiple keynotes and panels, including three consecutive years speaking at the Adult Video News convention in Las Vegas. Her work has not only helped tens of thousands of disabled people, but also inspired many others to become advocates for sexuality and disability education, an incredibly underserved area. Robin is a member of the Association of American Sexual Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT), the Women of Color Sexual Health Network (WOCSHN), and a graduate and member of the San Francisco Sexuality Information Training (SFSI). Committed to writing her memoir in 2021, she looks forward to sharing her wild journey of Blackness, acquiring a disability via rare illness while pregnant, motherhood, sexuality, and her experiences searching for answers. Robin is a deep-fried Southern woman, mid-century buff, and proud Mama.
Panelist: Leslie Templeton
Leslie Templeton is the youngest member of the Board of Directors for the Women’s March. She is a disability activist who has focused on issues like healthcare, sexual violence, mental health, and more. Leslie also currently serves as the chair of the Young Democrats of Massachusetts Disability Caucus. She advocates for young people to get involved in organizations and helps create space for young voices to join conversations around disability justice, intersectionality, and activism.