So, forget about ace dating apps, pride events and articles in mainstream newspapers for a moment. Cast your mind back to your earliest memories and work your way forwards to work out when you first heard about asexuality. It could be someone uttering the term in passing, or maybe you stumbled across it late at night one summer in the mid-noughties. I'm interested to see who can claim the earliest mention of asexuality. Yes, AVEN began in 2001 and researchers were saying ace was a thing as far back as 1980. But when did you first hear about it?
I'll start us off. I heard a friend at school mention asexuality during a sex education lesson. It would have been about 2006. Anyone top that?
In terms of sexuality and not reproduction, the first time I heard of asexuality was when I literally google searched, "lack of sexual attraction." This was in early 2014 after my boyfriend tried to have sex with me and I just....didn't get it. We broke up after that, mostly because we were 17 and he couldn't understand why I wouldn't want to have sex. At least we're still friends.
In my sex education class they mentioned the L and G in LGBT, but didn't cover anything after that. Most of the class was about anatomy, contraception (which included the "Pulling out" method), and STD's.
__________________
We can never forget that a human exists within all of us.
My story is similar to Kimmy's; I had always wanted a relationship but was terribly uninterested in the sex part. During college I lived with people who seemed very interested in partaking in the act, so I wondered what was up with me. I think my google search was "I don't want to have sex" or something. That was in 2011; the reason is history!
__________________
"After the movie, he suggested walking, which would have been exciting if I were a baby or a mermaid.
I think I first came across it about 10 years ago, but identified as being "not very sexual" for over 25 years-I nearly became a monk in the late 1980's (yeah I'm that old!) and eventually married someone who is also demi/grey-A. When I first came across it, I thought "yep that's close" alongside being Bi-romantic :)
2007. A friend of a friend was listed on Facebook as being in a group called 'Asexuality'. Evidently I was intrigued enough to take a look, found AVEN and the rest is history. I'd never realised it was even a thing before then and just assumed I'd eventually find somebody I was interested in.
In 2015, (just before finals, might I add), I read an article on Everyday Feminism about how to be a good ally to aces. I innocently said to myself "oh hey! I want to be a good ally! But what the hell is an asexual?" I realized that "asexual" actually describes me way better than "asexual ally". After my physics final, I went straight to the bead shop to buy some black wire to make my first ace ring.
