Andrew Gurza: Disabled People are Hot - Ep 16

Andrew Gurza, an award-winning Disability Awareness Consultant and the Co-founder of Handi, a sex toy company that puts pleasure within reach for disabled people, joins us to tell three moving stories from his life. The first takes us to his early childhood to the moment that he really felt the emotional weight of his disability. This difficult story is interwoven with the wonderful humor Andrew is famous for. In the second story, he recounts the first time he had sex as a queer and disabled young man in college with such transparency and vulnerability that we feel everything right there with him; the excitement, the struggle, and the pain. And in his third story, he exuberantly rolls down the red carpet as his purpose and importance as a queer, disabled activist becomes crystal clear. In this interview, and as always, Andrew is brimming over with full tilt loveability, humor, and naughtiness in the best possible way. We hope you join us for this amazing episode of Open Deeply that allows us all to have a better idea of what it’s like to be queer, disabled and a living testimony to the viral hashtag of his making, #DisabledPeopleAreHot. Andrew Gurza is an award winning Disability Awareness Consultant and the Chief Disability Officer and Co-founder of Handi, a sex toy company that puts pleasure within reach for disabled people. Andrew uses they/he pronouns and identifies proudly as disabled. Andrew is brimming over with full tilt loveability, humor, and naughtiness in the best possible way. So of course, he’s been featured or interviewed worldwide in popular media, such as the BBC, Huffington Post, and Out.com, several anthologies and many podcasts, such as Dan Savage’s “Savage Lovecast” discussing what is means to be, (quote), a queer cripple (unquote). He was the subject of an award winning National Film Board in the Canadadian Documentary “Picture This”. He is also the host of Disability After Dark: The Podcast Shining a Bright Light on Disability Stories which was nominated for a Canadian Podcast Award, a Queerty Award and was chosen as an Honoree at the 2020 Webby Awards. Andrew is also the creator of the viral hashtag #DisabledPeopleAreHot. How to find Andrew Gurza: http://www.andrewgurza.com/ and on social media @andrewgurza_ How to find Sunny Megatron: Website: http://sunnymegatron.com Facebook http://facebook.com/sunnymegatron Twitter http://twitter.com/sunnymegatron Instagram http://instagram.com/sunnymegatron Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@sunnymegatron YouTube https://www.youtube.com/sunnymegatron American Sex Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/2HroMhWJnyZbMSsOBKwBnk How to find Kate Loree: Website http://kateloree.com Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kateloreelmft Twitter http://twitter.com/kateloreelmft Instagram http://instagram.com/opendeeplywithkateloree YouTube https://youtube.com/channel/UCSTFAqGYKW3sIUa0tKivbqQ Open Deeply podcast is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Please know this episode has themes of sexual and emotional abuse and neglect. If you catch yourself becoming emotionally overwhelmed by this episode’s content, please get support. Call a friend, therapist, or an emotional support hotline, such as, 800-273-talk (8255).