This post will provide a brief overview of different asexual and aromantic identities, history, and how everyone can do better in respecting and including them in all spaces! Asexuality most commonly refers to the lack of sexual attraction one feels toward others. However, it can also encompass identities in which people experience low, rare, or situational sexual attraction. Since it can mean a variety of things it is also used as an umbrella term for other identities such as demisexuality, gray-asexuality, akoisexuality or lithsexuality, reciprosexuality, and aceflux. Similar to asexuality, aromanticism most commonly refers to the lack of romantic attraction one feels toward others while also being an umbrella term for those who experience low, rare, or situational romantic attraction. These identities include demiromanticism, grayromanticism, akoiromanticism or lithromanticism, recipromanticism, and aroflux. While a-spec identities are part of the community on their own, they can also coincide with other LGBTQIA+ romantic or sexual orientations, such as if a person were biromantic and asexual or if another were aromantic and gay.
In recent years, prominent characters in my favorite shows have been either identified in the plots or by their creators as being such. Some examples are Todd from BoJack Horseman, Peridot from Steven Universe, and Varys from Game of Thrones. Though media coverage and representation have gradually started to increase, a-spec identities are not new or a trend. In the 1940s and 50s, the Kinsey Scale, in spite of mostly focusing on the scale of heterosexuality to homosexuality, came to recognize people who reported “no socio-sexual contacts or reactions” as being in the category “X.” Though this recognition was not viewed in a way that was entirely positive nor accurate, this is one of the earliest examples of scientific data collected on people who would possibly identify as asexual today. About 20 years ago, David Jay, who identifies as asexual, founded the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) to remedy the lack of resources regarding asexuality. Similar to AVEN, sites such as Aromantic-spectrum Union for Recognition, Education, and Advocacy (AUREA) provide resources to support aromantic people and also educate others to better understand them. AVEN members walked in the San Francisco Pride Parade for the first time in 2009. A year later, the Asexual Pride Flag was introduced, and Sara Beth Brooks also founded Asexual Awareness Week. The week occurs in late October, which was from October 24 to 30 this year, and actually focuses on all a-spec identities. One topic that has emerged in some spaces is whether or not people who identify with the asexual and aromantic spectrum (also known as a-spec) belong in the community at all. At its core, this may seem very silly to many, as all of these identities deviate from heteronormativity in terms of the sexual or romantic attraction they experience or don’t experience, but it has long been a topic of contention inside and outside of the community. In my view, the aforementioned criteria are more than enough for a-spec people to be included under the large umbrella that covers so many people in the LGBTIA+ community. As is often the case, I also believe that it is misconceptions and sometimes hypocrisy from even others within our community that continue to fuel the perceived need to push out people who are both misunderstood and are in no way harming others by living their truths. We should all do our best to hear what they have to say and believe them, as well as support and celebrate who they are. To exclude them from our spaces and discourse does not make sense to me as they have always been here and deserve to have community as we all do. - Bek Sources and Further Reading: AUREA, www.aromanticism.org/. Pasquier, Morgan. "Explore the spectrum: Guide to finding your ace community." GLAAD, 2018, www.glaad.org/amp/ace-guide-finding-your-community. Prause, Nicole, and Cynthia A. Graham. "Asexuality: Classification and Characterization." The Kinsey Institute, 2006, kinseyinstitute.org/pdf/PrauseGraham-Asexuality.pdf. The Asexual Visibility and Education Network, www.asexuality.org/.
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January 2024
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