Yotam Zora, 24, Afula
Sexuality is a place I was afraid to approach most of my life. It’s something that requires a connection to emotion and I am by nature a pretty analytical person. I also avoided dealing with it out of embarrassment. It felt alien and I felt that talk of sexuality was nothing to do with me. I think it’s naturally much harder for people with a physical disability and requires a longer process. In other words, dealing with internal challenges and with the way society automatically perceives people with disabilities as a-sexual. There were stages in my life when I felt that the disability threw up a barrier to intimacy. I had a relationship that ended because of the disability. This was a relationship that was broken off only because I had a hard time believing that someone without a disability would want to keep being my partner. I told myself – I’ll break it off in advance, save some pain, before she does. In recent years, I’m more in tune and comfortable with my sexual side. I don’t think I’m some kind of super model but… I think I am sexy and that I can be sexy.