#it wasn't until I got to college that I met people who wouldn't immeduately balk at me coming out as nonbinary

[luminescentmoth]

I know a lot of people see ace discourse as being a purely online thing but there really is a certain raw pain in having your friends debate in front of your face whether or not you "count" as queer. Then you get home from school and open up social media and every positive post about asexuality has been coopted and twisted to make fun of people like you. You want to make a presentation for a debate competition about asexuality but AVEN isn't listed as a website you're allowed to source from. There aren't really any resources you can use, not unless you're willing to risk disqualification. You try to get other queer/LGBT students to join your effort to get AVEN put on the list. They say "i just don't think asexuals are an oppressed group." "Idk if asexuality is something we should grouping with LGBT."

People were less cruel and vitriolic irl than online, but there were still real life consequences to the discourse around asexuality. It wasn't just some petty terminally online bickering we can look back on and laugh.