The imagery of Cirque Du Soleil is globally recognized for its aesthetic beauty, the grace of fluid bodies performing defying acts.

Not often are these descriptions given to the disabled...until now.

Sins Invalid's work is a vibrant necessity in this age of bland complacency. They take the medical and societal parameters that have historically relegated the disabled citizen to a less than second class position and they throw it aside.

The art that is presented brings the intersectionality of race, gender, class, and ability and throws it in your face, forcing the viewer to come to terms with how these realities are not so different and yet so different for those with disabilities. And this is beautifully done with the erotic and the body.

Feminists are quite familiar with the politics of the body. How familiar are feminists with the issues that surround persons with disabilities?

The medical model, as often brought to the forefront with reproductive rights,...

Presenting certain experiences to the world at large (http://www.phem.org/) within my trip and antics in San Francisco bridges the gap between this academic utopia we are sharing right now and the reality of conservatism and complacency I am facing when I return.

Why did it take 34 years and thousands of miles for disability to be presented in an erotic framework? Why isn't there the freedom to piss on stage in a performance to illustrate father/trans son bonding? What can I hold onto to bring me the courage to shake things up?

I face the realistic fear that I will be immersed in the complacent quagmire that breathes in the water in Virginia. I want to shake the roots, I want to stir the nerves and show the way sexuality can be. I want the bravery to stand amongst the naysayers and allow my vagina to scream her happiness, to show Vag-Power while touting the rights for humankind to be human. Whether gender variant, gay in many forms or any other colorful human variety, there isn't the normalcy that is falsely prescribed. We are human...that is our tie.

There are those that have shared this journey that I will lean upon to breathe fire when they try to douse the flames. And I will look upon the work that is going to flourish from this to inspire me to do the same.

And we shall become the change we want to see.

The location of the Institute on Sexuality in San Francisco lends a circular experience to the academic progress. Within the program, this past week gave me my A-HA moment as I listened to Lisa Diamond. Her work resonated in my quest to figure out my next step once I graduate undergrad. Aside from learning all I can in sexuality studies, my journey to NSRC was in hopes to shed light towards my next direction and make connections. I found both in classmates willing to share their journey to assist in deciding mine.

As I pursue my quest, the people within the program that I approach with questions, no matter how miniscule, have been gracious in opening up to my inquiry. I have a greater understanding of the many directions I can go, discover in greater detail the specific topics I gravitate towards, and the support available out there to amazing people nationwide. There exists within the program a vast amount of people whose work has already changed the world. I am recharged to continue fighting the fight that needs to happen in Virginia with the examples I see everyday.

Outside of the classroom, I've found a city full of people with vast knowledge and experience. The Radical Women ladies we met in Dolores park exchanged problem solving in activism work. The housesitting opportunity I had opened me up to the inner ideas of a sex worker activist as well as meeting a queer activist on his way to becoming a physician. A civil rights lawyer showed the way to...

Growing up next to Pat Robertson's CBN/Regent University conglomeration was the framework for the conservative ideologies present in my hometown of Virginia Beach, Virginia. My brother went to the church led by George Sweet, a 1994 presidential nomination candidate. Interestingly, he was a disciple of Jerry Falwell and his follies.

My childhood curiousities regarding sexuality were tampered down with negativity and not replaced with information. That gave my inquiry a shameful tinge; until I went to college & pursued what was available to me (which wasn't much).

Through the women's studies program I kept having to introduce ideas foreign to many - feminist porn, sex positivity, gender variances and I happily was labeled "The Porn Girl".

There could be many wrong things to be labeled.

Fast forward to the Institute where my base knowledge regarding sexuality was shared by so many. Gender fluidity was common knowledge. In fact, the expanse of research and knowledge is so thrilling and my brain is soaking it all in. I see realization of my goals to not only learn but to network and discover what direction the winds will blow once I graduate next year.

Of additional thrill is the variety of experiences I've shared outside of the walls of SF State.

To walk in the trans march left me very veklempt. I...