Connie Panzarino

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Connie Panzarino
A smiling young white woman with dark hair
Connie Panzarino, from the 1965 yearbook of Massapequa High School
Born
Concetta Jean Panzarino

November 26, 1947
New York City, United States
DiedJuly 4, 2001(2001-07-04) (aged 53)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Occupation(s)Disability rights activist, writer, art therapist

Concetta Jean "Connie" Panzarino (November 26, 1947 – July 4, 2001)[1] was an American writer and activist for disability rights and LGBTQ rights.

Early life and education[edit]

Panzarino was born in New York City, and raised on Long Island, the daughter of Frank V. Panzarino and Antoinette (Anne) Panzarino. She was born with spinal muscular atrophy type III, a progressive neuromuscular disease also known as Werdnig-Hoffmann disease.[2][3] In 1960 she appeared on posters for a fundraising appeal for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.[4] She graduated from Massapequa High School in 1965.[5] She completed a bachelor's degree from Hofstra University in 1969,[6] and a master's degree in art therapy from New York University.[7]

Career[edit]

Panzarino worked in social services in Nassau County as a young woman, but had to quit when her income left her ineligible for the in-home supports she required.[8][9] She was a registered art therapist and director of the Boston Self Help Center from 1986 to 1989.[7] She worked with survivors of abuse and lectured on sexism, homophobia, and ableism. She also served on the boards of several organizations supporting disabled people, including the Disability Law Center and the Boston Center for Independent Living. She lobbied and marched in Washington, D.C. in the 1970s,[10] for Section 504 and for work opportunities for disabled people.[9][11] "I really don't lead a calm life," she told a New York Times reporter in 1977.[2] She created Beechwood, a cooperative living community for disabled women.[12] She wrote a memoir, The Me in the Mirror (1994).[13][14] Her memoir was adapted for the stage and performed at the Women on Top Theatre Festival in Boston in 2000.[15]

Publications[edit]

  • "whose festival?" (1982)[16]
  • "Female Homosexuality" (1991)[17]
  • The Me in the Mirror (1994)[13][18]
  • Rebecca Finds a New Way: How Kids Learn, Play, and Live with Spinal Cord Injuries and Illnesses (1994)[19]
  • "To My Other Bodies" (1996)[20]
  • "No Decision Here" (1999)[21]
  • "Camping with a Ventilator" (2001)[22]

Personal life and legacy[edit]

Panzarino had a close relationship with disabled Vietnam War veteran and activist Ron Kovic.[23] They went to high school together, and he thanked her in his memoir Born on the Fourth of July, saying "She stood by me like no one else, listened through nights and days, caring and loving, understanding and encouraging, wiping the tears from my eyes."[24] She identified as a lesbian,[12][25][26] and a photograph of Panzarino by Joan E. Biren appeared in Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians (1979).[27] She died in 2001, at the age of 53, in Boston.[1][7] Her work is frequently the subject of scholarship on intersectional queer/disabled identities.[12][14][28][29]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Brewer, Judy (August 10, 2001). "Connie Panzarino Passes". Access Press. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  2. ^ a b Goldman, Ari L. (June 19, 1977). "An Activist And Her Fight". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  3. ^ Woodcock, Scott (2009). "Disability, Diversity, and the Elimination of Human Kinds". Social Theory and Practice. 35 (2): 251–278. doi:10.5840/soctheorpract200935215. ISSN 0037-802X. JSTOR 23562572.
  4. ^ "Appealing". Newsday (Nassau Edition). November 18, 1960. p. 33. Retrieved May 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Massapequa High School, Sachem (1965 yearbook): image 78. via Ancestry
  6. ^ Ashkinaze, Carole (May 22, 1970). "Campus Apathy a Test for Handicapped". Newsday (Nassau Edition). p. 6. Retrieved May 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b c Briscoe, Daren (July 8, 2001). "Connie Panzarino, 53, Activist for the Disabled". Newsday (Suffolk Edition). p. 39. Retrieved May 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Lahart, Kevin (September 3, 1974). "'Be an Invalid', They tell Her". Newsday (Nassau Edition). p. 3. Retrieved May 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b "Enabling legislation". Newsday (Nassau Edition). May 30, 1975. p. 9. Retrieved May 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Lowe, Ed (July 5, 1974). "This RIder is Along for the March". Newsday (Nassau Edition). p. 9. Retrieved May 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "A Challenge to Laws from a Wheelchair". Newsday (Nassau Edition). February 28, 1975. p. 27. Retrieved May 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ a b c Brownworth, Victoria A. (October 20, 2020). "The Intersection Of LGBTQ History And Disability". Philadelphia Gay News. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  13. ^ a b Panzarino, Connie (April 11, 1994). The Me in the Mirror. Basic Books. ISBN 978-1-878067-45-6.
  14. ^ a b Mintz, Susannah B. (January 5, 2009). Unruly Bodies: Life Writing by Women with Disabilities. Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 98–110. ISBN 978-0-8078-7763-0.
  15. ^ Ascheim, Skip (March 10, 2000). "Feminist 'Eve'; 'Mirror' on a life of trials". The Boston Globe. p. 59. Retrieved May 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Panzarino, Connie. "whose festival?." Off Our Backs 12, no. 11 (1982): 27-27.
  17. ^ Panzarino, Concetta J. (1991), Leyson, Jose Florante J. (ed.), "Female Homosexuality", Sexual Rehabilitation of the Spinal-Cord-Injured Patient, Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, pp. 379–387, doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-0467-1_28, ISBN 978-1-4612-0467-1, retrieved May 26, 2023
  18. ^ Goldman, Ari L. (September 1, 1994). "A Rare Disease and a Rich Life". Newsday (Nassau Edition). p. 99. Retrieved May 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Panzarino, Connie. Rebecca Finds a New Way: How Kids Learn, Play, and Live with Spinal Cord Injuries and Illnesses. National Spinal Cord Injury Association, 1994.
  20. ^ Panzarino, Connie. "To my other bodies." Pushing the limits: Disabled dykes produce culture (1996): 85-86.
  21. ^ Panzarino, Connie. "No Decision Here." International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies 4, no. 1 (1999): 113-114.
  22. ^ Panzarino, Connie. "Camping with a Ventilator." Access Expressed! Very Special Arts Massachusetts News 11, no. 28 (2001).
  23. ^ Kindall, James (October 3, 1994). "The 46 Years of Connie Panzarino". Newsday (Nassau Edition). pp. B4, B5. Retrieved May 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ Kovic, Ron (June 13, 2016). Born on the Fourth of July: 40th Anniversary Edition. Akashic Books. ISBN 978-1-61775-470-8.
  25. ^ "Happy LGBTQ+ Pride Month!". Institute for Community Inclusion. June 21, 2022. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  26. ^ Boujaoude, Mary (June 28, 2020). "Disability Pride: Five Disabled LGBTQ Activists Who Connected Communities". Cripple Media. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
  27. ^ Nestle, Joan; Flash, Lola; Lindsey, Lori; Corinne, Tee (2021). Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians. Anthology Editions. ISBN 978-1-944860-37-0.
  28. ^ McRuer, Robert (2017), Barker, Clare; Murray, Stuart (eds.), "The World-Making Potential of Contemporary Crip/Queer Literary and Cultural Production", The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Disability, Cambridge Companions to Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 139–154, ISBN 978-1-107-08782-8, retrieved May 26, 2023
  29. ^ Corbman, Rachel (January 2, 2018). "Remediating disability activism in the lesbian feminist archive". Continuum. 32 (1): 18–28. doi:10.1080/10304312.2018.1404672. ISSN 1030-4312. S2CID 148871788.
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