Asexuality Explained

I was getting my daily dose of cat gif and memes when I came across and episode of FML. This particular FML seems to spark a lot of questions/ignorance/bigotry and I aim to clear up a few of these.

Asexuality is not the same thing as celibacy. Celibates are people who may have sexual attraction, but refrain from sexual activity, whereas asexuals have no sexual desires with any gender. Not all asexuals are celibate.

One does not suddenly decide they are asexual, they are asexual their entire life. You may still talk open or joke about sexuality with friends, but what causes the realisation varies. For me it was when I was about 18, and my nerdy late blooming friends started getting their first partners. Asexuals usually get their first moment of thinking something's different about them in their teens, like most gay people or for that matter most heterosexual people.

We've been here all along but we've just never been talked about before. It was first mentioned a possibility in the 70's and the first print published study was in 2012. Some people have identified as such for a long time, some people only realise they are asexual and not just "broken" after coming across the term.

Having no sexual orientation is not something that gets talked about, even within the asexual community itself. Most asexuals excise the "don't ask, don't tell" rule hence why it's taken so long for us to be recognised at all. Lets face it the world can't handles gay or trans* folk with any real decorum.

As previously mentioned, this is totally a thing. The word asexuality includes a lack of sexual attraction only. Not sexual arousal or sexual activity or romantic attraction. An asexual who has sex with her boyfriend just isn't sexually attracted to him is still asexual. Arousal is an involuntary response and she may still choose to engage in sex to please her partner. For example a gay man who has straight sex can still be gay, he doesn't cease to be gay just because he's had attractionless sex with a woman.

To read more check out these links:

http://www.asexuality.org/home/

http://www.wikihow.com/Understand-Asexual-People