disAbility

During a break in rehearsals for last Friday's Brahms gig [see below], my eye fell upon a 6'x2' banner bearing the following inscription:

"It's not the wheelchair that makes sex awkward: it's people's preconceptions."

Now I've been pretty hard working of late, and I'd already had a couple that afternoon... So I shook my head a bit and blinked a few times, in case, y'know, my tired eyes were playing some sort of trick on me.

But no. Wheelchair sex: 12sq feet of it, right there in front of me.

I became aware of the presence of a woman (it's a gift: I can't control it), just behind me. She looked nervous. 'We wondered about taking it down,' she said apologetically, 'in case people were offended. It is a church after all.' It seemed only fair to set her mind at rest.

'Yup,' I replied. 'I mean, I'm about as open-minded as they come - it's not a church, by the way; it's a concert venue - but that's just plain wrong. Also, I'm guessing it really is the wheelchair that gets in the way.'

She said nothing. But the poster was gone before the first punters arrived.