![]() That’s where I focus all my emotional labor: telling queer, disabled stories. That is, I guess, its own form of activism. I mean, I’m an activist in the sense that I’m a gay, disabled male who walks around with the confidence of, like, Rob Schneider in the late nineties. There’s a sort of safety in advocating for an identity that you could never inhabit. If you live long enough, odds are you will end up disabled in some form. We don’t know how to deal with mortality. It’s about being bigger, faster, stronger. We live in a culture that is about productivity. RO: Disability is profoundly uncomfortable given the value systems of our culture. GM: Why haven’t we made more progress when it comes to disability? It’s great that there’s a reference now, there’s Special, and people can point to it and be like, “Oh, your project is like this. I’ve seen what it’s like being able to reference your work while pitching my book. GM: You’ve created some of those reference points in the culture with your memoir and Netflix show. They need reference points for what you’re doing and there just wasn’t any of that for me. But it was really frustrating because Hollywood is so spineless and fear-driven. I felt like I needed to make my own base rather than be a company man or a writer for hire. A lot of gifted writers can mask it and write for a show about doctors or write for a show about whatever and really acclimate to the tone of a show. I knew very quickly that my voice, for better for worse, is very specific. I was this weird kind of diverse they couldn’t profit off of or monetize. RO: When I started writing for TV in Hollywood, people really didn’t know what to do with me. To be seen as just a body would be the greatest honor and privilege of my life. And it’s something I still feel to this day that I need to wrestle with or whatever. The need to be objectified and seen as just a body is so powerful. ![]() And I feel like, you know, my whole life’s mission is getting my dick back. I think that being disabled, I felt castrated at birth, for sure. What do you think it is about sex that’s so useful from a storytelling perspective? Greg Marshall: You craft sex scenes that are wickedly funny, touching, and revealing. My conversation with O’Connell has been editing for clarity and concision. “I mean, I don’t know a lick about his life but both having mild cases of cerebral palsy, there’s a shared experience there. “I look at Jonas, wanting to tell him everything, because if anyone would understand, it would be him, wouldn’t it?” Elliott confides to us. Rehabbing a hamstring torn during a drunken escapade, Elliott runs into an acquaintance from his physical therapy days as a kid. About halfway through the novel, as Elliott’s world is starting to implode, he bemoans the lack of other disabled people in his life.
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