Asta Philpot

Asta Anthony Philpot is an American born (Miami, Florida, 1982) man living in Leeds (UK), who was the protagonist of a 2007 BBC One documentary film titled "For one night only". He is affected with arthrogryposis, which impairs, since his birth, his physical ability of movement. He advocates the right to an active sexual life for people with disabilities, even if this means paying for sex.

After hearing of a legal brothel with access for wheelchair during a vacation in Spain in 2006, he visited the place and lost there his virginity. He found this experience very interesting and decided, therefore, to organize a trip with other people sharing its extreme difficulties in finding a romantic or sexual relationship as a consequence of physical disabilities, advertising its intentions through dedicated Internet forums.

Although finding initial resistance to the idea, two other young men, affected with different medical conditions (one legally blind and the other paralysed in a motorcycle accident) accepted to join the vacation with the purpose to visit the spanish night club and have the opportunity of a sexual encounter. A troup of BBC filmed it: the documentary opened some controversies about the opportunity to legalize prostitution in UK, as a mean of giving sexual experiences for physically challenged people, who often lack enough social opportunities to build a love relationship, although having a normal social potentiality and normal feelings and sexual needs.

See also

* Nina de Vries is a Dutch sex worker who offers erotic massages to "mentally disabled" men and women in Germany; please note that the topic is somewhat related but also intrisically different to the case of Asta Philpot, who is not mentally disabled, and such can give a legal consent to the sexual activity.

External links

* [http://www.astaphilpot.co.uk Asta Philpot website] , including some clips from the BBC documentary and other media.
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7057929.stm BBC News article] regarding his story and the documentary.
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008504d BBC One] page of the episode of the documentary series "One Life" dedicated to the story of Asta Philpot (episode 3, serie 9).