/u/AprilStorms on Is asexuality and aromanticism part of the lgbtq community? I believe that they are, but I keep seeing people from the community trying to gatekeep, and it’s frustrating to be myself, who’s an asexual.

I was here before the bullshit. I will be here after the bullshit.

My two cents: when I was a baby ace, 7-ish years ago, I felt hurt and isolated when LGBTQ things didn't include aces. I knew I was not straight. I did not experience the attraction to the other binary gender that people of my assigned sex are expected to, and that was inherently queer. The recent gatekeeping would have crushed me, and the community as a whole would have lost a vocal activist and defender.

I later turned out to be nonbinary trans, and homoromantic-ish (diamoric/enby lesbian). Accepting my asexuality helped me bridge into accepting other aspects of my LGBTQ identity (and adjacent things, like being polyamorous), but I was queer before I came to terms with anything else.

Some ace/aro people don't identify much with the LGBTQ community, and that's up to them. Some other queer folx don't either. As well as the anti-aspec nonsense, we have a gaycism problem, we have a transphobia problem, we have an m-spec erasure problem, we have an anti-Semitism problem. Just because some aspec people don't associate much with the broader LGBTQ community doesn't mean they shouldn't have the choice to. We have enough room. Come on in.

May 25, 2019 at 04:56AM