Mike Wilkinson
Mike is a 34-year-old man with intellectual disabilities who works at segregated day program and volunteers with an animal adoption agency. He lives with his mom in an apartment in a mid-sized Alberta city. Mike went to school in a segregated classroom, and his sexual education consisted of an annual half-afternoon class from a nurse. The nurse discussed the mechanics of penetrative sex, STIs, and relationships. Mike asked some of his female friends out during high school, but they all declined. After graduation he was socially isolated, and held mostly custodial jobs that left him little room for connecting with others. Mike met his girlfriend of 3 years at his agency, and he proposed to her after they had been dating for a year. She said “yes,” but after visiting her family, she reversed her decision. It seems her sexuality is constrained by her family, and Mike says that he has not had sex with her because her family does not want her to have a child. Their intimacy is thus restricted to cuddling with their clothes on. Although the family and supporters of Mike’s girlfriend are happy to see the two dating, they do not want things to go beyond that because they do not think the two would make suitable parents. Mike says that he wants to get married and move out, but he is discouraged by his parents from doing so, and has not been given the necessary supports and information to live on his own.