#aspec inclusion

[degengxrl]

aspecs on valentines day trying their best to make it abt us god i love this community

🖤🩶🤍💜 (asexual)

💚🤍🩶🖤 (aromantic)

🧡💛🩷🩵🖤 (atertiary)

even tho im a traitor /j (i have a partner)

[docotokautism]

the aspec experience of going 'but am i actually aspec?' and then seeing an allo and being like 'oh. okay. yeah i am. what the fuck'

[cosmicredcadet]

Soulmates are inherently amatonormative and it's so wild how many people refuse to acknowledge that and instead go around trying to "make it more inclusive" which mostly just leads to then forcing aspec characters into a amatonormative narrative.

[codthefishgod]

To all the people who think aspec people aren't LGBTQIA+ because we aren't "discriminated against enough", here's a lovely list of reasons why you need to educate yourself:

- We suffer from dehumanisation, people actively devaluing or even erasing our humanity because of our identities (The voidpunk community is heavily supported by aspec people because of this)

- We suffer from self hatred due to feeling as if and being told we are broken, that no one can be happy unless they're in a romantic/sexual relationship, because of allonormativity and amatonormativity that actively damages our mental health

- Amatonormativity shapes laws that put us at an active disadvantage, such as giving married people financial and legal benefits

- Aspec people have been victims of conversion therapy, correctional rape, a lower quality of life, and other effects of being a marginalised and oppressed group

- We suffer from our identities being pathologised and deal with medical stigma because of this, causing many of us to feel unwelcome in and even avoid health care settings

- We suffer from our identities being erased, which can range from people completely denying our existence and people equating it to celibacy, to an almost complete absence of aspec representation in the media (It's been getting better lately, especially for alloaces and aroaces, but I have yet to ever see a canon aroallo character, and representation for those on the spectrum rather than in the extremes is often ignored)

- YOU are creating a hateful, exclusionary space in a community meant to be about inclusion. The same thing that happens to us happens to bisexual people, to polyamorous people, and other identities that are "disputed." In a community meant to be about rejecting the norm, YOU are shoving us out because we don't fit the norm of being LGBTQIA+. Because we're not enough like you.

These are only a few examples of aphobia that people like me deal with. Discrimination and oppression against aspec people stretches far beyond this.

But even if it didn't, it is disrespectful and harmful to everyone involved to gatekeep membership in the community based on oppression and discrimination.

We aren't LGBTQIA+ because we experience oppression. We are LGBTQIA+ because our existence alone goes against heteronormativity and other societal norms forced upon us.

[amalgamezz]

things that allos do that make aspecs accuse them of being aphobic:

mocking their labels and vocab

invalidating their existence

trivializing their experience

excluding them from the queer community

comparing them to paedophiles and MAP groups

comparing them to their oppressors

things that aspecs do that make allos accuse them of being homophobic/queerphobic:

existing

talking about their personal experience and headcanons

expressing their wish to be included in the queer community

[beyond-mogai-pride-flags]

A[n intersex-inclusive] progress pride flag that explicitly includes disabled, altersex, a-spec, and ethically non-monogamous people.

The altersex symbol and intersex symbol interlock, to showcase unity within the varsex community.

The a-spec compass and ethically non-monogamous heart are both within a single symbol, to showcase the unity of going against amatonormativity.

Whenever I reblogged this post by @dhddmods, the flag and its meanings above got lost, so I'm reposting. -Ap

[fallenrain40]

"aroace people can still have relationships-" NOT ALL OF THEM CAN. YOU KNOW THAT RIGHT. WHY DO YOU WORD IT AS "aroaces can still be in relationships" AND NOT "some can have relationships, and others cannot."? WHY MUST YOU INSIST THAT WE STILL CAN LOVE IN SOME WAY. WHY DOES IT MATTER. WHY SHOULD WE HAVE TO LOVE. WHY, WHEN TALKING ABOUT AROACES, DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO IMPLY THAT IT'S OUR OTHER WAYS OF LOVING THAT MAKES US ACCEPTABLE? WHY CAN'T THE FACT WE DON'T LOVE MAKE US GOOD PEOPLE? WHY IS THERE ALWAYS AN EMPHASIS ON THE OTHER WAYS WE LOVE, OR THE AROACES THAT CAN STILL DATE, AND NOT ON OUR LACK OF LOVE? IT FEELS TO ME, LIKE YOU ARE TRYING TO PUSH ASIDE THAT ASPECT OF OUR IDENTITY, BECUASE IT'S TOO STRANGE TO YOU. YOU MAY NOT SAY IT OUTLOUD, BUT THERE'S STILL A STIGMA AROUND LOVELESSNESS. IN YOUR MIND, YOU STILL ARE VIEWING LOVELESS PEOPLE AS LESS MORAL OR GOOD, AREN'T YOU? OTHERWISE, YOU WOULD CELEBRATE OUR LOVELESSNESS, NOT SHOVE IT ASIDE BECUASE "THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO LOVE"

[miraculouslumination]

You know sometimes it just hits you that so much of queer "discourse" is basically one group of queer people trying to cultivate a subcommunity for themselves and their identity while another group of queer people cry and scream about how that group, who is just trying to exist and have their own bubble, is the cause of all their own group's problems

[spaghettimakesflags]

asexual npd flag

[aceinthefreakinspace]

*hands you some aspec nygmobs memes because I haven't been able to get this out of my head all week*

Part Two | Three | Four

[degengxrl]

remember trending means you have to make posts too rbing others doesnt do anything

🖤🩶🤍💜

💚🤍🩶🖤

💜💙💚💛

[ceresia-selestarr]

Yknow I think people should be able to label themselves however the fuck they want when it comes to sexuality/gender and that includes people who don’t want labels at all. If you see someone who labels themself a certain way, and your first thought is something along the lines of “They don’t fit the requirements of that label” instead of something like “Let me explore how they view themselves and how they label themselves in order to better understand why they want those labels, and how that overall fits into how they want to be perceived.”, then there’s something wrong.

These spaces don’t exist to exclude others, they don’t exist to tell someone they’re wrong, and they especially don’t exist to hurt others. Everyone has their own self identity, learn to respect it, because it isn’t that hard and it’s not gonna fuck up your life if someone goes against your preconceived ideas of how certain things should be. Acceptance doesn’t cost anything, but exclusivity and oppression does.

Let people be themselves, it really won’t hurt you.

[fixing-bad-posts]

[Image description: A screenshot of someone's blog title, edited whiteout-poetry to read, "for the ace community." Beneath is the blog description, edited in a similar manner to read, "This blog is for aces, particularly in defense of aces. Also a blog for aces who want to express themselves and their sexuality. It's a blog saying you belong."]

---

for the ace community

This blog is for aces, particularly in defense of aces. Also a blog for aces who want to express themselves and their sexuality. It's a blog saying you belong.

[vitanmortis]

Happy pride month. If you're only accepting of the aro identity when it's paired up with asexuality you are not inclusive of aromantic people at all. Asexuality is not an all-encompassing label, sexual and romantic attraction are different concepts and if you can't accept that aroallo's are just as part of the queer community as aroace's then your support is conditional and we don't need it. Conditional respect is not respect.

[2pen2wildfire]

Y'know I identified as asexual for like, a WHILE before eventually realizing I wasn't, and honestly I regret nothing. I mean I was like 15/16 and Mormon (repressed exmo gang eyy✌️) so it's not like I'd be having sex anyway, I wasn't missing out on anything (and aces aren't "missing out" in general, they're doin their own thing and I love that). But in my case identifying the way I did allowed me to step back and just. Get in tune with my emotions and attractions and everything. I'd realized I liked girls at 13 and instantly I thought that meant I had to sexualize them, objectify them even. And that led to a lot of awkward interractions and feeling like shit about myself for being creepy (didn't help that I'm autistic and had trouble figuring out what was too much). So I really think I needed to be ace for a while. I needed that time to let myself desexualize love and attraction in my brain until I was in a place where I could express sexuality in a healthier way. In a similar way I think it was good that I went through so many gender and sexual/romantic orientation labels before settling on what I am now, because it allowed me to analyze why I identify this way and what it means to me. My identity is stronger and more solid because of the way I grappled with it throughout highschool, and I learned a whole lot about other communities along the way!

[lesbianpolls]

Lesbians, are you aplatonic / on the aplatonic spectrum?

> Yes

> No

> Questioning / Unsure

> Other

*aplatonic is feeling little to no platonic attraction or experiencing platonicism in a non-normative way. platonicism refers to the desire to make friends or platonic partnerships or the feelings or emotional connection an individual may have towards their friends or platonic partnerships. like aromantic and asexual, aplatonic is a spectrum of identities that vary in amount of attraction or desire.