My Body, My Closet

"My Body, My Closet" is about the ways invisible disabilities require a kind of "coming out" similar in some ways to the experiences of those in the LGBT community. Samuels analyzes the different ways coming out can be enacted: as joining (openly) the disability community, as making oneself vulnerable, etc. And she analyzes the way chosing not to come out (or "passing") is read: as "selling out" and assuming normative privileges compared with protecting oneself and avoiding discrimination. This analysis is further complicated by Samuels when she describes the intersections of queerness and disability. She reflects on the similarities and differences between butch and femme lesbians and compares these identities with visible and invisible disabilities. She ends the piece by noting the way some lesbians with disabilities have reclaimed femme-ness in their queer identities as they come out about their disabilities or more fully enter the disability community.