Diversity Rules Magazine

4 Diversity Rules Magazine October 2014 In the spring of 2007, Belo Cipriani, a young gay man liv- ing in San Francisco, was beaten and robbed of his sight at the hands of his gay friends. At the age of twenty-six, he was forced to relearn how to walk, cook, and date - in the dark. In his first book, Blind: A Memoir, Belo Cipriani chronicles the two years immediately following his assault. JRK: Can you give Diversity Rules readers an idea of who Belo Cipriini is -- where you are from and all that good basic information? BC: My name is Belo Cipriani and I'm a gay and blind writer from the San Francisco Bay Area. I was born in Guatemala City to an Italian mother and a Brazilian father but was raised in San Jose, California. Currently, I'm the career blogger for the San Francis- co Chronicle, a spokesperson for Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Writer-in-Residence at Holy Names University in Oakland, California. JRK: In 2007 you were beaten and robbed and were left blind as a result. Can you tell us a bit about the incident and what precipitated it? BC: On a chilly evening in San Francisco, I came across a group of old friends. My hellos were replied with angry insults and they began to beat me. I don't think they intended to blind me; however, I can tell they were in raged and that they took their frustra- tions out on me. JRK: You wrote a book called "Blind: A Memoir" that chronicles the two years after you lost your sight. Can you tell us about the book and what your life has been like during these two years? BC: I would be lying if I said the two years after the assault were easy. I had to learn how to do everything the blind way and I spent a great majority of those two years in different training facilities. Walking with a cane, then a guide dog, learning braille and to cook was how I spent most of those two long years. JRK: What is the prognosis for your vision? Is there a chance it will ever return? BC: ere is currently no medical treatment avail- able for the type of retina trauma I have. But even if there were to be some magical cure in a few years, I would not go for it. I have accepted my condition and feel happy as a blind man. JRK: You have stated that "disability does not mean the end of someone's life." How do we as a society dispel the misconception that having a dis- ability means that a person cannot carry on about their lives with some degree of normality? BC: People with disabilities are plagued by stereo- types and one of the ways to help clear some of those stereotypes is to demand more diversity in popular media. e disabled are the largest minority group, yet we're rarely seen on TV shows, commercials and magazines. If the disabled were more common, they would be treated with more normality by the gen- eral public. It's bizarre that the disabled are not part of major ad campaigns considering we eat, wear, and drink the same things everyone else does. JRK: You have stated that the gay community has been slow to embrace individuals with a disability. Can you expand on that and tell us why you feel this way? BC: ere are very few representations of people with disabilities in mainstream media and even fewer in LGBT mass media. Popular gay and lesbian char- acters are often portrayed as abled bodied but also disability seems to be missing altogether from their worlds. I was once turned away from a speed dat- ing night at a gay bar because the bartender said they didn't have any blind guys for me to date. More than half the time I have been asked to leave a place, whether it was my guide dog or my inability to see Blind: A Memoir The Story of Belo Cipriani An Interview By Jim Koury, Editor/Publisher

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