Author Archives: asexualityarchive

Ace Activism Opportunities: Legal Inclusion

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[This is part of a series on opportunities for ace activism. See the masterpost here.]

Right now, asexuality is mostly unrecognized in the legal world.  In the US, only one state and only a handful of cities include explicit protection for ace people, and I’m not aware of the situation being any better elsewhere.  There are countless laws and practices which unfairly affect ace and aro people.

So far, there has been little activism devoted to the area of legislation.  In NYC, an ace lawyer helped author the explicitly ace-inclusive wording in that city’s Human Rights Law.  There have been a handful of states where there have been symbolically meaningful, but legally meaningless proclamations where state governors have recognized Ace Week.  And that’s about it.  This is a huge area, with lots of opportunities for activists to make a difference.

One area that leaps to mind is anti-discrimination law.  Federal Law does not explicitly cover sexual orientation at all.  In states where there are anti-discrimination laws that do cover sexual orientation, most of them explicitly define sexual orientation in a way that excludes asexuality.  (Only New York state explicitly includes it.)  Asexuality is included in only a couple of city ordinances.

There is currently an effort underway to change the definition of sexual orientation in a proposed bill that will several federal anti-discrimination laws in the US.  This is the first concerted effort of ace/aro political activism that I’m aware of.

But anti-discrimination law is just one piece of what needs to change.  There are consummation laws that may require having sex for a marriage to be considered valid.  Immigration interviews will ask extremely personal questions about bedroom arrangements. Asexual people are often targeted by conversion therapy.  Tax law gives a discount to married people. Hate crime laws may not cover crimes against us.  Inheritance law prefers spouses or blood relatives over “unofficial” life partners.  Single people may be treated differently in health care situations.  Many of these issues are not specifically “asexual” issues, but they will disproportionately impact asexual people.  And this is just a subset of what can be worked on.

And legislation is just one way to change things.  There are regulatory agencies or commissions who will set rules.  There are court cases which will interpret laws and set precedent.  Some of the most important civil rights victories have come through these avenues.  Working with regulatory agencies would be a similar process to lobbying a congressional representative about a bill, but court cases would require plaintiffs or defendants, lawyers willing to take on the case, and likely a lot of money and a lot of time.

This is also an area that needs raw numbers of activists working on things.  Changing a state law will require dedicated people working toward that goal in each state, so that’s at least 50 people if you want to make a difference everywhere.  Changing a municipal code would require someone local to attend city council meetings, so now you’re talking about hundreds and thousands of people putting in the work.

These efforts would benefit greatly from the networking mentioned in a different post.  If we coordinate our work with people who are already connected to the right people and who are already working on a similar area, then we have a greater chance of success.  We need a network of ace politicians, ace lobbyists, and ace lawyers.

Existing Projects:

Ace Activism Opportunities: Asexual History

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[This is part of a series on opportunities for ace activism. See the masterpost here.]

Asexual history is always a popular topic.  People thrive on scraps of information that show that asexuality existed before 2001.  Someone tweets a picture from a feminist conference in the 70’s or talks about a Dear Abby column from the 90’s and everyone gets excited.

And then the tweet falls victim to the timeline and the blog post gets forgotten.

And six months later…

Have you seen this Dear Abby column from the 90’s?

There is a significant effort that goes into rediscovering things that have already been found, because there’s nothing that’s keeping track of what’s already been known.  Writing about ace history tends to be transient.  Every couple of months, someone starts a new Ace History blog to great fanfare, but like most blogs, they lose interest after a handful of posts and all their work disappears.  Once in a great while, someone makes a new important discovery, but if you’re not a follower of the right Twitter account or sitting in the right Unconference session, you may never hear about it.

We need something more permanent.  Something that will catalog and categorize and contextualize all these findings.  At a minimum, this is just a bibliography, but ideally it will be so much more.  I want to see commentary about how it connects threads to other pieces across time or about how it says “asexual”, but they didn’t mean the word like we do.  I want to see interviews with the people who were there.  I want to see profiles of potential and confirmed aces, whether real or fictional.  Maybe it’s a website.  Maybe it’s a book.  Maybe it’s a wiki.  Maybe it’s a physical storage unit full of records and ephemera that turns into a museum exhibit some day.

And there’s also a sense that asexual “history” means anything prior to the founding of AVEN.  That’s not where asexual history stops.  Asexual history flows through the meetup groups, the conferences, the parade contingents, the published papers and books and articles, the flags and symbols, the documentaries, the laws that have included protections for asexual people, the TV show characters, the ceremonial proclamations recognizing Ace Week… 

Ace history is happening now.

We owe it to the future to keep a record of what’s going on, what we’re doing, and why we’re doing it.  Even things that happened just a few years ago are being lost, as blogs get deleted and people hiding behind Internet pseudonyms vanish.

Existing Projects:

Ace Activism Opportunities: Networking Outside The Community

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[This is part of a series on opportunities for ace activism. See the masterpost here.]

One of the other opportunities was largely about networking and communication and coordination inside the community, but we also need strong connections with organizations that aren’t strictly ace focused.  We can support their efforts, then be able to call on them to back us when we need it.  We can get a seat at the table and be a part of the conversation, instead of being an afterthought or a footnote.

We need to connect with other queer groups, from local community centers and pride festival organizers to national and international groups like GLAAD and the HRC.  

We need to connect with organizations like the AMA and APA and local doctors and therapists to transform health care.

We need to connect with lawyers and lobbyists and politicians to change laws.

We need to connect with publishers and producers to ensure accurate representation in media.

We need to connect with singles rights activists and childfree activists and poly activists and others who are working to redefine what “valid” lives and relationships are.

We need to connect with schools and teacher associations and groups creating sex ed curricula to ensure that asexuality is adequately and accurately covered and that everyone has what they need to support ace students.

We need to connect with journalists so they’ll have the right people to talk to the next time they need to write an article that touches on asexuality and so we’ll have people to feed press releases when we want to get the word out about something.

These are just some of the areas where we need to grow our connections.

Ace Activism Opportunities: Health Care

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[This is part of a series on opportunities for ace activism. See the masterpost here.]

The world of “health care” is a huuuuuuuuuge opportunity for ace activism, so I’m just going to briefly touch on just a few of the areas that can be explored.

  • Develop workshops on providing ace competent care.  Train doctors on what asexuality is, how to approach potentially asexual patients, etc.
  • Get the DSM-5 fixed.  The move from the DSM-IV to DSM-5, with its explicit mention of asexuality in an an exception for FSIAD and MHSDD, was a huge step forward, but there are still problems.  The mention of asexuality is hiding in scare quotes in a footnote that doesn’t even show up in the Desk Reference.  The exception calls for people to be “self-identified as asexual”, which is hard to do if you’ve never heard that asexuality is A Thing™.  The criteria for FSIAD and MHSDD both require “clinically significant distress”, but there’s no allowance for that distress being caused by everyone constantly telling you that you’re broken for not wanting sex.  Then there’s a more fundamental question about whether or not these are actually “disorders” at all.  Ace activism was instrumental in getting the improvements in the DSM-5, so it’s time to be making noise about getting some changes in the next edition.
  • Explore various ways to suppress or eliminate various bodily functions and features that many aces could do without.  Look at techniques for skipping periods with birth control pills.  Are there ways to safely get rid of erections?  Can an unwanted libido be turned off?  What options exist for hysterectomies or castration?  Are they safe?  What’s the process for obtaining one?  Are there processes/procedures/regulations/restrictions that stand in the way and need to be changed?
  • Work to end the pervasive and incorrect idea that everyone wants sex, that everyone who is lacking in sex is miserable, and that the only path to happiness is through lots and lots of sex.  Throw out the blanket “fake it ’til you make it” style advice.  Throw out the failed anti-depressants and sunless tanners being relabeled as sex cure-alls.  Don’t try to fix what isn’t broken.
  • Explore issues involving single people and medical care.
  • Look at tests and procedures which may not be necessary for people who are not sexually active.  For instance, are pap smears worthwhile for people who’ve never had sex?  Should guidance around those sorts of things be changed?  Should there be more outreach to aces letting them know the risk and giving them guidance for refusing potentially unnecessary or unwanted procedures.
  • Fight against conversion therapy, in all its forms.

Ace Activism Opportunities: Activist Coordination

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[This is part of a series on opportunities for ace activism. See the masterpost here.]

There is a lot of ace activism going on these days.  More than there ever has been before!  While it’s great that there’s so much happening, it’s all so scattered that it’s impossible to keep track of it all.   There are also mostly isolated bubbles without a lot of cross pollination between them.  The vloggers don’t talk to the bloggers.  The bloggers don’t talk to the podcasters.  The podcasters don’t talk to the local organizers.  The local organizers don’t talk to the AVENites.  The AVENites don’t talk to the Twitterers.  The Twitterers don’t talk to the Tumblrines. And the Tumblrines don’t even talk to each other because the damned reblog system is so broken.  There are secret Facebook groups and hidden Discords and mythical Reddits that only the select few have access to.   And that doesn’t even begin to cover the people who don’t have an online presence or aren’t doing their work in English.

Bottom line, it’s hard to find out what’s happening and it’s hard to tell people what you’re working on.  If something is happening that you might be interested in, you have to be lucky enough to follow the right account or be watching the right livestream at the exact right moment, or you might never know about it.

What we don’t have, and what we sorely need, is a central coordination group that tries to act as a conduit between all these various bubbles.  This group would collect what’s going on and disseminate that information out.  They would reach out to and develop relationships with the prominent voices within each bubble.  They would work to connect people across bubbles.  They’d have cross-medium signal boosting powers.

You’re working on a project that would benefit from the exposure of being on a podcast and getting a feature written on a big blog?  This group would help set that up.

You’re a vlogger that needs to get in touch with aces in Rhode Island and don’t know where to start?  They’ll have the information at their fingertips.

You have an idea you’re eager to work on, but need people to collaborate with?  They’ll connect you to someone else who has the same idea and has already started putting together a team.

The power of this activist coordination group is that they unlock the potential and the power of others to go further.  They are a clearinghouse of knowledge and connections and know how to bring the right people together to make awesome things happen.

Places With Ace-Inclusive Laws

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This is a quick look at some US cities which have ordinances which include asexuality and a brief description of what they say and what they cover. This is not meant to be a comprehensive look at every city everywhere.

Previously, it was thought that only a handful of places (most notably NYC, San Antonio, and Albany) had ace-inclusive laws on the books. But apparently no one bothered taking a step back and looking wider to try to see just how many cities and counties had them. I just did that and whoa nelly holy crow, there’s a lot more than I imagined. Here are just a few of them

(I have tried to include a date for when asexuality was included, but it is not always apparent or confirmable. Uncertain dates have a question mark.)

Albany, NY

General anti-discrimination law.

The term “sexual orientation” includes actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, asexuality and bisexuality.

https://ecode360.com/7680357

Anchorage, AK

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2015.

Sexual orientation means actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, or asexuality.

https://library.municode.com/ak/anchorage/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TIT5EQRI_CH5.20UNDIPR_5.20.010DE

Columbia, MO

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2018.

Conversion therapy ban. Added 2019.

Sexual orientation. The preference or practice of homosexuality, heterosexuality, asexuality, and bisexuality, or some combination thereof, by consenting adults, or as perceived by others, but not including sexual preference or practice between an adult and a minor.

Shared definition:

https://library.municode.com/mo/columbia/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_CH12HURE_ARTIIIDIPR_DIV1GE_S12-32DE

https://library.municode.com/mo/columbia/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_CH16OFMIPR_ARTIICOOF_DIV10OFAGPE_S16-146COTHMIPR

Decatur, GA

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2019?

Sexual orientation means an individual’s actual or perceived orientation as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual or asexual.

https://library.municode.com/ga/decatur/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIIICOOR_CH22BU_ARTIXUNDI_S22-240DE

Denver, CO

Conversion therapy ban. Added 2019?

Sexual orientation means a component of identity that includes a person’s sexual and emotional attraction to another person and the behavior and/or social affiliation that may result from this attraction. A person may be attracted to men, women, both, neither, or to people who are genderqueer, androgynous, or have other gender identities. Individuals may identify as lesbian, gay, heterosexual, bisexual, queer, pansexual, or asexual, among others.

https://library.municode.com/co/denver/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=TITIIREMUCO_CH28HURI_ARTIXPRCOTH_S28-256DE

Galveston, TX

Fair housing law. Added 2016.

Sexual orientation means an individual’s real orientation or orientation perceived by another as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or asexual.

https://library.municode.com/tx/galveston/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOCI_CH12.5FAHO_S12.5-2DETE

Idaho Falls, ID

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2020.

Sexual Orientation. Actual or perceived romantic, emotional, or sexual attraction or activity, including homosexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality, and asexuality.

https://www.idahofallsidaho.gov/DocumentCenter/View/169/Chapter-11—Non-discriminationPDF

Juneau, AK

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2016.

Sexual orientation means actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, or asexuality.

https://library.municode.com/ak/juneau/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_TIT41EQRI_CH41.05EQRI_41.05.045DE

Kansas City, MO

Conversion therapy ban. Added 2019.

Sexual orientation means the preference or practice of homosexuality, heterosexuality, asexuality, and bisexuality, or some combination thereof, by consenting adults, or as perceived by others, but not including sexual preference or practice between an adult and a minor.

https://library.municode.com/mo/kansas_city/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COORKAMIVOII_CH50OFMIPR_ARTVIIMI_S50-234COTHMIPR

Lansing, MI

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2006 or 2016?

Sexual orientation: A person’s sexual identity in relation to the gender to which they are attracted; the state of being heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual.

https://library.municode.com/mi/lansing/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COOR_PT2ADCO_TIT12CIRI_CH297HURI_297.02DE

Middletown Township (Bucks County), PA

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2020

Notable for explicit aromantic inclusion! The first instance of it I’ve found anywhere.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION – actual or perceived sexual and/or romantic attraction and/or feelings toward other individuals. The term includes, but is not limited to, individuals who are heterosexual, homosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, asexual, aromantic, and/or questioning.

https://ecode360.com/MI2390/laws/LF1214558.pdf

Minneapolis, MN

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2019

Sexual orientation: A component of identity that includes a person’s sexual and emotional attraction to another person and the behavior and/or social affiliation that may result from this attraction. A person may be attracted to men, women, both, neither, and/or to people who are genderqueer, androgynous, or have other gender identities. Individuals may identify as lesbian, gay, heterosexual, bisexual, queer, pansexual, or asexual, among others.

https://library.municode.com/mn/minneapolis/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COOR_TIT7CIRI_CH139INGE_139.20DE

Newtown Township (Bucks County), PA

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2018

Notable for explicit aromantic inclusion! From 2018, this is the earliest instance of it I’ve found anywhere.

SEXUAL ORIENTATIONActual or perceived sexual and/or romantic attraction and/or feelings toward other individuals. The term includes, but is not limited to, individuals who are heterosexual, homosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, asexual, aromantic and/or questioning.

https://ecode360.com/33875506#33875502

New York, NY

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2018.

Sexual orientation. The term “sexual orientation” means an individual’s actual or perceived romantic, physical or sexual attraction to other persons, or lack thereof, on the basis of gender. A continuum of sexual orientation exists and includes, but is not limited to, heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality and pansexuality.

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/law/chapter-1.page#8-102

Palm Beach County, FL

Fair Housing & Public Accommodation Law Added 2019.

Equal Employment Law Added 2017?

Sexual orientation means heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality or asexuality, whether actual or perceived.

Common definition:

https://library.municode.com/fl/palm_beach_county/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PABECOCO_CH15HURI_ARTIIIHOPLPUAC_S15-37DE

https://library.municode.com/fl/palm_beach_county/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PABECOCO_CH2AD_ARTVIEQEM_DIV1GE_S2-263DE

Richmond, CA

Health equity law. Added 2015.

These communities include, but are not limited to women, people of color, low-income individuals and families, individuals who have been incarcerated, individuals with disabilities, individuals with mental health conditions, children, youth and young adults, seniors, immigrants and refugees, individuals who are limited-English proficient (LEP), and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA) communities, or combinations of these populations.

https://library.municode.com/ca/richmond/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=ARTIXHE_CH9.15HEALPO_9.15.020DE

Rochester, NY

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2001?

SEXUAL ORIENTATION Homosexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality or asexuality, whether actual or perceived.

https://ecode360.com/8676662#8676662

San Antonio, TX

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2013

Sexual orientation means an individual’s real orientation or orientation perceived by another as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or asexual.

https://library.municode.com/tx/san_antonio/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICO_CH2AD_ARTXNSCPO

Volusia County, FL

General anti-discrimination law. Added 2011?

Sexual orientation shall mean an individual’s actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality or asexuality.

https://library.municode.com/fl/volusia_county/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_CH36CIRI_ARTIINGE_S36-2DE

(Sourcing note: You’ll notice that most of these are from a site called “municode”. That’s a service that allows municipalities to publish their laws and codes on the Internet. These were found by doing a general web search for “municode asexual” and digging through the results. It is likely that the Municode wide search product would turn up more results. It is also likely that the same approach could be taken with other municipal code repositories to find more. I have selected the locations I have heard of. There are many more which were not familiar to me which I did not include.)

(Correction: An earlier version incorrectly identified Middletown Township, Bucks County, PA, as just Middletown, PA, which is apparently a different place. Sorry about that. I bet you get that all the time.)

Let’s Fix The Equality Act

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[Update: Visit the Inclusive Equality Act Coalition for more information.]

Last year, I wrote a couple of things about the law and how it relates to asexuality and aromanticism. Spoiler alert: Asexuality and aromanticism are left out of anti-discrimination laws pretty much everywhere.

One particularly notable example of this is the federal Equality Act, an update to the Civil Rights Act to make sexual orientation and gender identity explicitly covered by its protections. While the recent decision in the Bostock case sets a good precedent that can be applied in many other areas (including potentially the rest of the Civil Rights Act), there is still a need to codify it into law so there’s no wiggle room or space for interpretation or opportunity for a future court to simply change their minds.

The problem with the Equality Act is that it defines “sexual orientation” as specifically “homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality.” This is an outdated and limited definition, which does not cover the full diversity of orientations that we recognize today. Aros and aces are left in the cold, along with pansexual people and others.

So let’s fix that.

We need to get ahead of the problem and update that language to close that loophole, before it can be exploited. I’m proposing language based on the New York City Human Rights Law (NYC Admin. Code, Title 8, Chapter 1, Section 102):

“The term ‘sexual orientation’ means an individual’s actual or perceived romantic, emotional, physical or sexual attraction to other persons, or lack thereof, on the basis of gender. A continuum of sexual orientation exists and includes, but is not limited to, heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality, pansexuality, and aromanticism.”

This language recognizes attraction types beyond just sexual attraction. It also protects people who lack attraction of any particular type. And it explicitly includes asexual, pansexual, and aromantic people. The original NYC law did cover a lack of romantic attraction, but did not explicitly mention aromanticism at all.

However, I recognize that this is an imperfect definition, combining multiple types of attraction all under the umbrella of “sexual orientation”. I’m proposing this purely as a pragmatic measure:

  1. The existing language of the Equality Act is specifically mentioning “sexual orientation” in many places.  To change that language would involve a large scale rewrite of the bill, and it feels like that would be a harder effort to get passed, as well as just be harder to explain to people who aren’t versed in the nuance.
  2. This is essentially the language used in the existing NYC law, so it provides a precedent.  An imperfect precedent, but a precedent nonetheless.

What Can You Do?

On this page are some tools to help you write to Congress about it as well as reach out to large queer organizations to help get them on board. There are also some graphics you can share. But the most important thing you can do is spread the word. Make some noise. No one will do anything if they don’t know there’s something that needs to be done.

Letter to Congress

The following letter is a sample letter to your congressional representatives, if your representatives are supporters of the bill: House | Senate. (If they’re not a supporter, it’s probably not worth sending this letter, but it might be worth sending a different one urging them to support it.) You can fill in the blanks, and just send it off, but I urge you to personalize it in some way, especially if you live in their district.

Dear [Insert Congressional Name Here]:

I want to thank you for supporting the Equality Act. This is an important bill which will be a huge step along our path to justice for all in our country. Here’s hoping that we’ll be in a position to get it passed and signed next year!

Unfortunately, the act does not protect everyone it should. The definition of “sexual orientation” that it uses is outdated and limited, and excludes a large number of people are aromantic, pansexual, or asexual, among other orientations. I am one of the people this language leaves behind. I ask that you work to update this language to reflect the wide diversity of orientations that we recognize today and into the future.

To that end, I propose this more inclusive definition for “sexual orientation”, based on the language found in the New York City Administrative code (Title 8, Chapter 1, Section 102: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/law/chapter-1.page#8-102), with a few alterations:

“The term ‘sexual orientation’ means an individual’s actual or perceived romantic, emotional, physical or sexual attraction to other persons, or lack thereof, on the basis of gender. A continuum of sexual orientation exists and includes, but is not limited to, heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality, pansexuality, and aromanticism.”

I hope that you are able to work with your colleagues to fix the Equality Act.

Thank you,
[Insert Constituent Name Here]

Letter to LGBTQIA+ Groups

This letter is for queer organizations who have the clout to help push Congress for a more inclusive Equality Act.

Dear [Group]:

I want to thank your organization for supporting the Equality Act. This is an important bill which will be a huge step along our path to justice for all in our country. Here’s hoping that we’ll be in a position to get it passed and signed next year!

Unfortunately, the act does not protect everyone it should. The definition of “sexual orientation” that it uses is outdated and limited, and excludes a large number of people are aromantic, pansexual, or asexual, among other orientations. I am one of the people this language leaves behind. I ask that your organization work with Congress to update this language to reflect the wide diversity of orientations that we recognize today and into the future.

To that end, I propose this more inclusive definition for “sexual orientation”, based on the language found in the New York City Administrative code (Title 8, Chapter 1, Section 102: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/law/chapter-1.page#8-102), with a few alterations:

“The term ‘sexual orientation’ means an individual’s actual or perceived romantic, emotional, physical or sexual attraction to other persons, or lack thereof, on the basis of gender. A continuum of sexual orientation exists and includes, but is not limited to, heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, asexuality, pansexuality, and aromanticism.”

I hope that you are able to work with your Congress and your fellow LGBTQIA+ groups to fix the Equality Act.

Thank you,
[Insert Name Here]

Slogans and Hashtags

What kind of activism can be done without snappy slogans and hashtags? So here’s a few suggestions:

  • #FixTheEqualityAct
  • The Equality Act doesn’t include me.
  • I’m not equal under the Equality Act.
  • Fix the Equality Act. Include [Asexual People/Aromantic People/Pansexual People]
  • “Equality” means all of us. Fix the Equality Act so it covers [Aros/Pan People/Aces].

Images

Here are some images to share. They don’t have a lot of context, so you probably want to include information about what the Equality Act is and what needs to be fixed about it in the caption.

Closing Notes

I don’t have to be the only person pushing for this.  I don’t want to be the only person pushing for this.  I have no in, no clout, no magic secret to getting the law changed.  It’s not “What I say goes”, so please, if you have language that you prefer, please push for that!  It doesn’t really matter that we’re all going with exactly the same message, the point is that we’re all pulling in the same general direction.

My take is that the language I’m suggesting here is “close enough for government work” (literally…).  The goal here is to include the protection, rather than pass a Queer Theory exam.  I don’t want to make the perfect the enemy of the good.

Ceremonial Proclamations: What They Are, Why They’re Essentially Meaningless, And Why You Should Get One Anyway

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You may have seen the news that the Seattle Aces & Aros got a Ceremonial Proclamation, signed by the Governor of Washington, declaring October 20th-26th, 2019, to be Asexual Awareness Week in the State of Washington.

This was a very exciting moment for us, and as far as I’m aware, the first time that Ace Week has been recognized in this way anywhere!

Needless to say, it’s a big deal! A big deal for the Seattle group and a big deal for the ace community as a whole.

But how did we pull it off? How did we get a busy governor, a former presidential candidate, to take time out away from running a state to sign a piece of paper officially declaring it to be Asexual Awareness Week?

Simple: We asked.

The reason it had never been done before wasn’t that it was too hard, it’s that it was probably just never tried to any great extent.

So does this mean that the governor is fully on board the Ace Pride train? Does this mean we’re going to get a black tie reception in Olympia in honor of Ace Week?

Not exactly… (Not yet, anyway…)

So what does this mean?

Policy-wise, and from the perspective of the business and laws of the State of Washington: Absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. This is just a fancy piece of paper with a shiny seal on it. The website to request a Ceremonial Proclamation even has a disclaimer that can be paraphrased as “RT =/= Endorsement”.

But symbolically, this is HUGE. It is officially Asexual Awareness Week in Washington. Signed, sealed, delivered. This is real, this is happening, and here’s a fancy piece of paper with a shiny seal to prove it. This matters and we matter. People see it and they are proud, and excited, and validated, and they want to tell everyone they can about it. Things like that are the essence of what Ace Week is all about.

What is a Ceremonial Proclamation, anyway?

From the page for requesting one from the State of Washington:

Ceremonial proclamations recognize a day, week or month for a specific issue or occasion. The intention of a proclamation is to honor, celebrate, or create awareness of an event or significant issue.

In other words, it’s basically a way to get the word out about something, using a superficial government document that declares it to be important. It’s not an official policy stance from the governor and it does not necessarily represent the views or beliefs of the government. It won’t even be announced or posted on a government website. Hence the word “ceremonial”.

A ceremonial proclamation typically follows this form:

WHEREAS this is a Thing;

WHEREAS this Thing is important;

WHEREAS there are people in Place who are interested in Thing;

WHEREAS this Place is totally awesome;

THEREFORE I, Important Person in Place declare it to be

NATIONAL THING DAY!

When you’re requesting a ceremonial proclamation, you actually write all of that yourself! So you get to decide what’s important and how you want to present it, then you send it in. Now, the office might edit it slightly (they did with ours), but it will fundamentally be what you wrote for them.

For the most part, ceremonial proclamations will celebrate the mundane and uncontroversial. Recognizing National Teacher Day or Cowboy Poetry Week isn’t going to move the needle in an election.

At the same time, there is some level of validation here. It’s not completely a rubber stamp, sign anything that comes along procedure. There is some level of vetting that goes into it. Completely frivolous requests will probably get tossed, and governor or mayor isn’t going to want to be embarrassed by signing something that goes against what they believe in. So while this means that the governor probably won’t be marching in the Pride Parade with us next year, it does mean that he (and his staff) is enough of an ally to be willing to have his name associated with it.

Which brings me to another point… These sorts of proclamations are promotional all around. The group requesting one wants to use it to promote their pet issue, and the person signing it wants to promote themselves. You see their name next to the thing you like, supporting the thing you like, so you’re naturally inclined to like them, too. They’re counting on that positive association. Look at the mayor, she’s on our side! So that is something you should consider when requesting one. If your governor or mayor or county executive or whatever is a trash fire of a person, you might be better off not requesting one. (Not that they’d sign it anyway…)

What does it take to get one?

You fill out a form on a website, then you wait.

That’s about it. There’s no lobbying, there’s no coordination, there’s no meetings, there’s no constituent letter-writing campaigns. You find your local government’s information on requesting a ceremonial proclamation, and follow the steps. They may be called something different in your area, so you may have to dig a little bit to find it. State, county, and city may all have a program like this, and there’s no reason not to submit a request to each of them.

There are a few things you’ll need to do to have a better chance of success, though:

  1. Understand the requirements for submission. They may very slightly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, so make sure you pay attention to each one you submit.
  2. Submit your request from the relevant jurisdiction. If you live in Florida, the Governor of Idaho won’t care about your request. Same goes for cities and counties. If you’re in a group that straddle borders, try to have someone from each location submit the relevant ones.
  3. Coordinate your requests. If you live in a state with multiple ace groups, reach out to them to decide what you’re going to submit and who will be handling the requests, as well as how you’re going to handle the announcement if you get it.
  4. It’s all about promotion. So talk up how important Ace Week is. Go all in on how proud you are to live in a place that’s leading the way on LGBTQIA+ rights. Promotion promotion promotion.
  5. Start early. Washington had a lead time of a full month before the delivery date. That means you need to be submitting the request in mid-September, and to hit that deadline, you’ll need to be working on the wording for some time prior to that. This isn’t something you can roll up half-asleep Saturday morning before Ace Week and pull out of a hat.
  6. Don’t give up. This was our second year of submitting requests. Our first year, we had a false start with one of our attempts. They said it was going to the Mayor’s desk for a signature, but we never got confirmation that it was done, so we never publicized it beyond the group. We have a 1 in 4 success rate so far.

There are two parts to your submission: The “WHEREAS”es and the supplementary information.

The “WHEREAS”es are the draft text of the proclamation. That’s what will actually go on the piece of fancy paper that you get. I have the text that we used, and you’re free to borrow it. It worked once, so it’s a good starting point! I’ll post it at the bottom of this page.

The supplementary information is a bit more personal. You’ll need to talk about why Ace Week is important to your community. Make it relevant and timely. You’ll also want to talk about who you are. They’re more likely to listen to a request from an established activist or an organized group who’s marched in the pride parade several years running than Ace Q. Public, random person. But don’t let that stop you if you are just Ace Q. Public. You’ll never win if you don’t play, so give it a shot regardless.

Also, it’s important to point out that I’m very much new at this process myself. Plus, I’m only familiar with the process in the US, I don’t know what it’s like elsewhere. I think the more of us who try this, the more tips and tricks for success we’ll figure out. So if you give it a whirl, let me know how it goes! (And if any of you have the political inside track, please spill the beans on how to have a successful submission!)

Example Proclamation Text

Here’s the WHEREAS text that we used. Note that it is templatized with the location AND the population figure, so be sure to change that before you submit, or you’ll get a very goofy looking proclamation back. I used the 1% figure because it’s the most commonly cited value, and then I added the “at least” clause for wiggle room.

WHEREAS asexuality is an often unknown and misunderstood sexual orientation; and
WHEREAS people who are asexual but have not heard of asexuality may often feel confused, discouraged, and lonely; and
WHEREAS discovering asexuality can be an affirming, positive, life-changing experience; and
WHEREAS the goal of Asexual Awareness Week is to promote education and understanding about asexuality; and
WHEREAS there are estimated to be at least [1% OF POPULATION OF PLACE] asexual people in [PLACE]; and
WHEREAS the inclusive and diverse [PLACE] is proud to be at the forefront of LGBTQIA+ recognition and acceptance;

Asexuality Activism Report Card — October 2019

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[This post is a submission for the October Carnival of Aces, hosted by @asexualawarenessweek, on the theme “Reaching In, Reaching Out”, and as been crossposted here from its original location.]

Every year around Ace Week, I tend to give encouragement and suggestions about the type of outreach or activism we can do.  This year, I’m going to do things a little different and instead give a report card on where I think we are in terms of various kinds of activism/outreach/visibility.

These are solely my opinions and my categories and are based on my experiences and not any kind of exhaustive research or survey.  Please feel free to provide your own grades and suggest other areas I might have missed. I also want to note that these grades are not an indictment or attack on any particular group, person, or project.  If you’re working on any of these things, you’re part of the solution and your work will make these grades improve over time, so keep at it!

And if you’re doing any of these things, please plug your projects, so people will know about them!

Intra Community – A

We focus an awful lot of energy inward, and that’s a good thing.  Extending a helping hand, providing resources, hosting chatrooms, making podcasts, organizing meetup groups, writing lengthy blog posts, hosting conferences and unconferences, selling t-shirts…  We’re doing a pretty good job supporting each other from the inside.

Queer Community – B

There are quite a few mainstream LGBTQ groups who openly support us.  We often hold our meetups at the queer community center in town.  Many aces are involved with LGBTQ organizations.  There’s an ace group who goes to Creating Change every year.  We’re an obligatory part of many organizations’ Pride messaging.  Lots of groups now deliberately use the “LGBTQIA” variant of The Acronym, and make it clear that “A” isn’t for “Allies”.  The ace group in the NYC Pride Parade this year (likely the biggest pride parade ever) was deliberately selected to be the 10th contingent, which is a huge deal because the parade was literally 12 hours long.

There are obviously challenges.  The uninformed who don’t understand why we’re at the table.  The deliberate trolls who relentlessly hound us online.  But those people will become irrelevant over time.

Unfortunately, this year marked the first time where I saw Rainbow Capitalism set its sights on us.  (With a big name ace group complicit in the exploitation…)  So that’s not good.

Everyone Else – D

We are not doing well in this area.  There are a few people out there who have heard of asexuality, but not many.  Most people use the word wrong or as the insulting punchline to a joke.  There isn’t a single household name who has come out as asexual and put themselves out there as an advocate.  It’s better than it was 8 years ago, but we’re still mostly invisible.

I don’t really have any suggestions here (except that if you’re famous and asexual, COME OUT), because most of the suggestions I’d have are covered in the other areas.

Direct Outreach – F

By “Direct Outreach”, I’m referring to deliberately trying to find people who are asexual but who are unfamiliar with the term or that do not recognize that they’re asexual for whatever reason.  It’s sort of a subset of a lot of these other groups.  (And it could probably use a better name…)

I’m calling this out explicitly, because I think this can have the most impact, if we can figure out effective ways of doing it, and I don’t think anyone’s really doing this.  (I sort of tried, but it didn’t really work out…) Basically, it would be able getting information about asexuality in front of the people who need it.  Taking over the search results for “Why don’t I want sex?”.  Writing articles about how some guys just don’t care about that sort of thing for a men’s magazine.  Maybe even a direct person to person conversation with that friend who never seems to date.  I don’t know, exactly.  If I knew, I’d be doing it.  But I think it needs to be done.

Fiction Media – C+

There are books with ace characters now!  Pretty much entirely YA, though.  And either a love story focused on the asexual character being asexual, or where asexuality is a tangential inclusion token with no real value.

There are TV shows with positive ace characters now!  Huge step forward from lows of Better Half!  Three shows, in fact!. Two of which have been canceled, and the third of which is about to have its final season.  And none of which are anywhere close to the popularity of House.  And none of which are anywhere close to the popularity of another show which completely erased a main character’s canon asexuality.

There are movies with ace char-  Oh no, no there aren’t.  Never mind.  Same with video games.

While some strides have been made, and having productions actively consulting with groups like Ace LA is a huge step forward, we’re still largely living an area of headcanons and unverified conjecture and Word Of God retcons.  There’s so much more than can be done.

Most importantly, we shouldn’t fawn over and praise any little scrap of hope.  Demand better.

If you’re in a position to make things, make them.  If you’re in a position to influence things to be made, influence them.  If you’re in a position to boost content that is made, boost it.

Non-Fiction Media – C-

There are starting to be articles about asexuality that go beyond the typical sensational “There are some people who claim to be asexual, can you believe that, isn’t that SO STRANGE” or the blandly informational 101 interview featuring a picture of sad grey people in bed.  Not many, but they’re there.  But, at the same time, there are blazingly dismissive assholes hiding behind Ph.Ds, writing things like “’demisexual,’ an unnecessary new substitute for the word ‘human’ ” in articles that are published in 20-fucking-19.

There are a number of podcasts and YouTube videos talking about asexuality, but I don’t know how much reach they have outside of the ace community.

There’s one documentary that hasn’t aged well and I think has been removed from most streaming services, and another that hasn’t been released yet and is phenomenal and you should all see it.  So that…  Two documentaries.

Taking a quick look on Amazon, there are about seven books of substance on asexuality.  Three are academic queer theory textbooks with a very specific audience.  Two are self-published.  One is a weird collection of essays, half of which have little to do with asexuality at all, written by someone who isn’t ace and who didn’t seem to bother even talking to aces for much of the book.  That leaves one book about asexuality for a general audience written by an asexual that had a real publishing run.  Just one.

So, y’know, Cs get Degrees or whatever, but we can do soooo much better in this area.  Someone go write a book about asexual dating.  Someone go write a book about asexual history.  Go.  Do.  Now.

Education/Schools – D

Well, it seems like it’s getting at least mentioned occasionally, and groups like Asexual Outreach have put some work towards this.  But we’re still left out of sex ed in most places, and when we are included, the information can be confused, inaccurate, or even ridiculed by the instructor.  Tackling this area will, over time, help out every other area on this list, because the next generations will all know and understand what asexuality is, and we won’t have to start from zero in order to get anything done.

Political/Legal – F

Earlier this year, I did a cursory review of anti-discrimination laws as they pertain to asexuality.  Where asexuality was protected, it was often by accident.  Only one state explicitly mentioned asexual people.  Many states which did have strong LGBT anti-discrimination protections have defined “sexual orientation” in such a way to exclude asexuality.  Even the “Equality Act” that the Democrats have made a lot of noise about this year has that narrow definition.

We need to start making connections with politicians and political groups, and we need to start leveraging our connections with queer organizations to get them to push for better language in these laws.  (Many of the non-discrimination laws were deficient or bizarre in multiple ways, so we’d all be better off with improvements.)

The Seattle group did manage to get a Ceremonial Proclamation from the Governor of Washington in recognition of Ace Week this year! But, uh, those things have zero political or legal weight to them, so it doesn’t change the grade. (I’m going to write another post about how ceremonial proclamations are pointless and why you should get one anyway…)

And I should note that it’s an F— as far as protections for aromantics…

Health Care – D+

Well, we managed to get parts of the DSM-V rewritten.  But even those parts are less than ideal.  There are some therapists and doctors who are well versed in asexuality, and others who, as I mentioned above, hide behind their Ph.Ds writing horrible things and going unchecked.  There’s a raft of sex pills with marketing that explicitly targets people who are probably asexual but don’t know it yet, trying to sell them worthless junk that will make them suddenly black out randomly or permanently change the color of their skin.  We’re still not an option on the clipboard the doctor hands you to fill out.  We’re still forced to take unnecessary and invasive tests for no practical reason.

I think we need to be showing up at health care conferences.  We need to be reaching out to local providers.  We need to be telling people how they should be treating us, instead of letting them fumble around and hopefully get it right on their own.

Overall GPA: 1.59

A 1.59 out of 4.

Now, like I said at the beginning, that doesn’t mean people who are working on these things are doing a bad job, or that we’re failing as a whole. It means we have work to do. And all of the activists out there know we have work to do, and that’s why they’re out there doing it! The point of this report card is to inspire people to get involved, to stand up and say, “I think I can help make this better”. That’s all activism is.

We have a lot of work to do. Time to get busy.