Welcome back to our Thursday series, LGBTQ 101! This week, we're going to talk about asexuality. ♠️
When getting to know and understand the diversity in our community, many people get tangled up in language and labels. Understandably, LGBTQIA+ is a lot of letters to unpack, each one representing a community with even more diversity within it. Outside the community, some would say the A stands for ally, but that simply isn’t true. The A stands for asexual, yet another umbrella term that includes a wide variety of expressions and experiences.
The ace spectrum as it’s called refers to people who do not experience sexual attraction and/or romantic attraction at all or in very specific or infrequent ways. Terms within the ace spectrum include asexual, aromantic, graysexual, grayromantic, demisexual, and demiromantic. How asexual people describe themselves can be any combination of those terms that best fits their experience.
While some might think this sounds like a lonely way to go through life, the reality of the ace experience can be filled with joy and satisfaction. Check out this video to hear directly from those within the ace spectrum about the joys and challenges of their identities.
To learn more about ace identity, check out the Asexuality Archive, and watch this video from Tinder.