Asexuality is defined as “the lack of sexual desire”.

Personally, a quote I once found (can’t remember who said it, sadly D: )to describe asexuality is “Some asexuals may feel horny, some may not. Some asexuals may masterbate, others do not. However, we don’t feel the intense urge to orgasm to go along with these feelings and actions.”

Chocolate analogy: © Isanda @ AVEN

“An ace person won’t eat chocolate because they don’t like the taste/texture, a celibate person won’t eat chocolate because they want to loose weight, have health problems, etc…”

Asexuals it’s not so much a choice for sex or sex-like activies. Another anology could be comparing with a heterosexual man and/or woman. A heterosexual man wouldn’t be interested in having sex with another man. For asexuals, it’s the same type of deal with them not wanting to participate in sex or sex-like activies.

Like many things, asexuality is a spectrum. The degrees of sexual desire vary along the spectrum.

Gray aces can be defined as somewhere between no sexual desire, and having sexual desire. The definition according to the AVEN wiki:

•do not normally experience sexual attraction, but do experience it sometimes•experience sexual attraction, but a low sex drive•experience sexual attraction and drive, but not strongly enough to want to act on them•people who can enjoy and desire sex, but only under very limited and specific circumstances

Demi aces (also known as deimsexual) is commonly defined as needing a powerful/strnog emotional and/or psychological connection before engaging or sex or sex-like activities. “One night stands” and “Friends with benefits” is right out. Outside of relationships, their sexual desire is non-existent.

•Allosexual: Someone who does not identify as an asexual

•Verisexual: (pronounced very-sexual) another term for people who are non-ace, Veri means “truly”, has a general negative connotation to it within the ace community

•Queerplatonic: Someone who feels an intense emotional connection to, but does not mean they are romantically involved with someone, a partner in this would be referred to as “zucchini”

•Libidoist: Someone who has a sex drive

•Non-Libidoist: someone who doesn’t have a sex drive

•Antisexual: Someone who believes sexuality is wrong and should be avoided, this is a choice, not an orientation

•Hyposexual: Someone with a low sex drive

•Lithromantic: someone who wants to be in a romantic relationship, but only have it be one sided

Black = Asexual

Gray = GrayAces and DemiAces

White = Allosexual (nonAces)

Purple = Overall community

The black ring is often worn on the middle finger, of the right hand. The middle finger ring often symbolizes

© Adrian on AVEN Wiki:

“…explanation being that: your right middle means "currently single", the right ring means "currently taken" and since the left ring means "taken/married" in a permanent sense, then the next logical conclusion would be that left middle means "permanently single".

Click on the link below for the awesome timeline!http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f26RtnCZepg/TfPR6O-sUPI/AAAAAAAAACs/OUS8rsMWWQw/s1600/asexy%2Bhistory.png

•January 1994, study in UK finds that 1% of respondents (out of 18,000 people) to a sexual attraction survey “never felt any sexual attraction”

•“Haven for Human Amoeba” founded in October of 2000 on Yahoo, asexual group

•March 2001, David Jay creates AVEN (asexual visibility education network) while in college

•May 2002, AVEN moved to asexuality.org and forum was started

•January-April 2006, ABC’s The View, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN Tv Broadcasts feature asexuality

•April 2007, MTV News “Young and Asexual” broadcasts

•June 2009, AVEN first paricipates in San Francisco Pride Parade

•August 2010, asexual flag selected

Asexual day is May 29

Asexual Awareness week is October 20-October 26

Asexual Visibility and Education day is October 12

Asexuals often have “two” orientations. One is their ace-ness (wherever you fall on the spectrum). The other orientation is their romantic orientation. Their romantic orientation refers to who they may feel romantically attraction to. Allosexuals (non-aces) can also have romantic orientations.

Below is a picture that shows many of the romantic orientations that exist.

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/2013_05_SexualRomanticSpectrumWIDE.png

“Aphobia” does exist. Some common aphobic phrases:

“How do you know you don’t like sex if you’ve never tried it?”“Celibacy is a choice”

“You only have low libido”

“Asexuals don’t have a closet to come out of, they’re lucky”

“So you’re just a special snowflake”“You’re just immature about sex”

•Primary Sexual Attraction: A sexual attraction to people based on instantly available information (such as their appearance or smell) which may or may not lead to arousal or sexual desire.•Secondary Sexual Attraction: A sexual attraction that develops over time based on a person's relationship and emotional connection with another person.•Primary Sexual Desire: The desire to engage in sexual activity for the purposes of personal pleasure whether physical, emotional, or both.•Secondary Sexual Desire: The desire to engage in sexual activity for the purposes other than personal pleasure, such as the happiness of the other person involved or the conception of children.

•“Asexuals United” Facebook, general information about asexuality

http://tinyurl.com/me7axlq

•“Demisexuality” Facebook, general information about demisexualhttp://tinyurl.com/mhdh7bd

•“AVEN” Message board, a lot of general information about asexuality, and has a large community base

http://tinyurl.com/l2kxf8

•“AVEN” Official Site

http://tinyurl.com/3aeuya

•Asexual PDF Frequently Asked Questions

http://tinyurl.com/mbl4b8n

•Huffington Post Articleshttp://tinyurl.com/msyv6hr

Understanding Asexuality 

by A. F. Bogaert (2012)

book by a researcher in the field of asexuality

studies

(A)sexual

 by Angela Tucker (2011)

Documentary, available on Netflix

Asexuality: A Brief Introduction

 by Redbeard (2012)

book dedicated to talking about asexuality as a sexual

orientation