What Asexuality Is

 An asexual person does not experience sexual
attraction to anybody or anything.
 It doesn’t mean an inability to have sexual
arousal, drive, or activity – some asexual people
have any or all of those things and some don’t.
 Asexuality is a measure of sexual attraction only.
 Non-asexual people are referred to as allosexual.
Asexual people are colloquially called ‘aces.’
What Asexuality Isn’t

 Impossible
 Celibacy
 Homophobia/Denial
 Sociopathy
 A medical disorder
 A mental illness
 Late maturity
 Repression/Fear of sex
 Inability to attract
sexual partners
 A result of sexual abuse
 Attention-seeking
Demisexuality & Gray-A

 A demisexual is a person who does not experience
sexual attraction until they form a strong emotional
connection with someone, often (but not always) in a
romantic relationship.
 Gray-A is short for gray-asexuality – anywhere in
between asexuality and sexuality – low sex drive and
rare or situation-specific sexual attraction, among
other things. It’s a general term.
 Both are considered part of the ace community.
Attraction

 Sexual Attraction – Desire
or drive to engage in
sexual behavior with the
object of attraction.
 Intense emotional interest
in an individual,
interpreted as an indicator
of a potential romantic
relationship and physical
intimacy.
Romantic and
Sexual Orientations
Not mutually inclusive or
exclusive.
Also:
Gynsexual/gynromantic
Androsexual/androromantic
Wtfromantic
Graphic by asexual-not-a-sexual on tumblr, who’s a star.
The Kinsey Scale

Heterosexuals
0
1
Homosexuals
2
3
X
Asexuals,
breaking models
since 1948
4
5
6
The Double Storms Model
Sexual Orientation
Romantic Orientation
 Gerald Tippett
 On the NZ soap opera
“Shortland Street”
 Biromantic Asexual
 2007-2010
 Poppy
 On the American
television show “Huge”
 Aromantic (?) Asexual
 June-August 2010
 Kevin
 Karen Healey’s Guardian of the
Dead
 Asexual of unknown romantic
orientation
 April 1st, 2010
 Tori Beaugrand
 R. J. Anderson’s Quicksilver
 Aromantic Asexual
 January 1st, 2013
House

 Season 8, Episode 9: Better Half
 January 23, 2012
Real-Life
Aces
LGBTQI(A?)

 Sometimes included
as part of LGBTQIA,
sometimes not
 Many asexual people
consider themselves
members of LGBT,
but many do not
 Note: many people
in the “Yes” group
are also trans*
Asexuality and LGBT

 Some members of LGBT community object to
asexuality being included because they believe that:
 Asexuality isn’t “real”
 Asexuality promotes slut-shaming, celibacy,
homophobia, and/or rape culture
 Asexual people are basically straight and/or “pass”
 Asexual people don’t need safe spaces
 Aces share nothing with other members of the LGBT
 Many major LGBT organizations do not recognize
and/or include asexuality.

 Asexuality is not
recognized as legitimate
 Pressure to conform,
perform, & put out
 Romance and sex
saturation in media
 “Sex and/or Romance =
Humanity”
 “Sex = Love”
 Invisibility is not passing
(People use the word “asexual”
in this sense a lot, and it’s a bit
not good. Don’t do it.)
The Trevor
Project
 LGBTQ teen crisis
helpline, circa 1998
 Also provides
resources to LGBTQ
teens, parents &
schools
 Began to educate line
operators about
asexuality, April 2012
Asexual Pride
Ring
  Black
Pride Flag
 Ace of Spades/Hearts
 Cake
How To Be Ace-Friendly

 Be aware
 Don’t make assumptions
 Be educated
 Understand what
asexuality is and isn’t
 Don’t erase aces
 Make queer spaces safe
and friendly places for
asexual people
 Like FUSE! Yay!
Questions?
People are weird and
complicated, and
that’s the best thing
about us.
Got you covered.