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I don’t know if it’s any different now, but I’m going to be 30, so this is going on almost 20 years ago otherwise, yes, as I’ve gotten older, I do feel that there are more barriers with disability and sexuality and relationships, perhaps more than I ever even anticipated when I was younger. 

“There’s the whole issue of Supplemental Security Income, SSI and the marriage penalty, the idea that if you are getting SSI benefits, then if you get married, your benefits get cut.

And also from a Medicaid perspective, which is the primary channel through which people with disabilities access long term care, if you’re Medicaid eligible and you get married, your spouse’s assets are counted with yours. So, most of us would be disqualified from Medicaid by virtue of being married. And that’s just not an option for most people because the cost of long-term care is crushing, and you could only pay for it out of pocket if you had an extremely lucrative job.