#Like I said. I've been personally told that asexuality is inherently homophobic

[moonlovingvampire]

oh and I'm still thinking about acephobia apparently.

Asexual discrimination is legal in Sweden since the law says "Discrimination based on sexual orientation is illegal. In this law sexual orientation is defined as Homosexuality, Bisexuality, and Heterosexuality" (1 chap. 5§ Fifth paragraph (2008:567), paraphrased and translated). This also makes discrimination against pansexuals legal too, since it isn't listed by name, or any other sexuality that isn't gay, bi, or straight. Romantic orientation isn't mentioned at all.

Sure, you can infer that it means all sexual orientations and romantic orientations, but it doesn't, very clearly. In listing what orientations it is illegal to discriminate against it also makes all other orientations legal to discriminate against.

so there's that. Would a judge rule that an illegal discrimination "hasn't occurred" when it is against other orientations than listed? I don't know. I hope they wouldn't. But as it stands, it hasn't according to the law.

on a "lighter note", another thing I noticed pretty much exactly 2 years ago at the end of pride month was some casual acephobia while watching a tiktok compilation, something I might not have noticed if I wasn't ace, which makes it even more dangerous.

It was called "tik toks to get in to the mood for pride month" or something, and I must point out that the individual tiktoks were not inherently acephobic, but the compilation was.

It included 3 videos with asexuality in them, though it really was more like 2.

The video that doesn't really count is a video of a person going through the pride section at a store and there's an ace flag in the selection.

The other two videos however....

They were both about people who used to identify as ace but now, person 1 is a lesbian, and person 2 is questioning since their antidepressants stopped working and they think they might be experiencing attraction now.

I am all for questioning your orientation and even changing which label to use. Sexuality is fluid and your own understanding of your sexuality can also change. I have nothing against people who used to identify as ace but no longer do. In fact, I'm happy for them, understanding yourself is a journey and each step should be celebrated.

My problem is that 1. the only videos with asexuality were with people who no longer identify with the label, and 2. the only videos with people questioning or changing their label are with people who used to identify as asexual.

I have been told directly that asexuality is inherently homophobic because it stops people from identifying as gay. I have been told that asexuality isn't real and is just a side effect of antidepressants.

That these two videos were chosen does not seem like a coincidence. These two videos reinforce those beliefs. A viewer not familiar with ace exclusionist talking points would not recognize this casual acephobia and might in fact internalise these false opinions, that asexuals are just people who don't realise that they're gay, and that asexuals are just people with a hormone imbalance caused by medication.

No mention of asexuality would have been better than just including these two videos as it would not reinforce these exclusionist beliefs.

Aphobia is still here. It's in mocking QPPs, it's in mocking picrew icons with the ace background, it's in many more ways. It might not be ever-present like it was a couple of years ago, but that doesn't mean it's gone.