What is
Involuntary Celibacy?

Involuntary celibacy is a prolonged state of unwilling sexual abstinence.
In extreme cases, it may be forced or otherwise completely beyond personal control. For example, among institutionalized individuals, those who have been castrated, or people with certain medical conditions.

Mental hospital patients, including transient patients and non-criminals committed for decades at a time, are explicitly and broadly prohibited from having sexual intercourse in multiple US states. This is also true worldwide both explicitly and as an unwritten rule.

Research shows that most healthcare professionals working in residential aged care facilities do not see sexuality as something to be addressed at all. As a result it mostly remains unchecked that there exist nurses, doctors, and staff who broadly disallow sexual activity among their residents. Sexual expression among mentally competent elders is routinely denied in both rehabilitation and residential nursing care homes.

Also, many group homes employ unecessary bias and paternalism in restricting the sexual acitivity of their residents and in a way that falsely equates them with sexual predators. In the USA, heterosexual sex, including conjugal visits, are broadly outlawed in every single prison except for state prisons in 4 states. Even masturbation is banned in most prisons. Court cases such as Lawrence v. Texas and Obergefell v. Hodges have recognized access to sexual activity as integral to individual liberty and dignity.