/u/rayfromtheinternet on Why I think people are wrong in saying we don't belong in the lgbtq+ community

There are actually a lot of issues of discrimination against ace and aro people out there and human rights issues that are just as significt to aces as the other letters of the LGBT+ acronym, that get dismissed because they're not The Big One, same-sex marriage.

Going by a 2017 national LGBT survey by the Government Equalities Offices, asexual people are as likely as other non-heterosexual sexual orientations to experience:

• Verbal harassment
• Coercive or controlling domestic behavior
• Sexual harassment or violence
• Discriminatory behavior in the workplace
• Being offered or undergoing conversion therapy

Asexuals also had the lowest employment rates of all orientations surveyed, lowest rates of access to public healthcare, and were the only sexuality demographic that reported getting a negative response more often than a positive response when disclosing their orientation to healthcare workers.

Here's a 2015 AAU survey on sexual assault and misconduct on university campuses demonstrating higher rates of harassment, stalking, non-consensual touching and violent assault on asexual students. (in all categories, asexual respondents experienced more of the misconduct than straight and gay/lesbian students, while bi/pan students experienced the most.)

According to this 2011 study by the Williams Institute, asexual youth are 114% more likely to be homeless than the general youth population. Additionally, among trans people? 27% more likely to be homeless if they're ace than if they're straight (compared to 19% more likely if they are gay or bi.)

This 2018 study by the American Psychological Association details the higher rates of anxiety and depression amongst asexuals (9.24% experience anxiety and 11.80% experience depression, compared to 6.15% and 6.99%, respectively). This study also includes demisexuality as its own category, and demisexuality was the orientation with the highest rates for both anxiety and depression (11.56% and 13.47%, respectively.)

Let's talk suicidality. According to this 2013 study by the Taylor & Francis Group, 26% of cisgender aces experienced suicidal thoughts within two weeks prior to the study, compared to 24% of cis LGB and 12% of cis straight subjects. 43.4% of cis aces report having seriously considered at some point, compared to 38% of cis bi people, 34% of cis gay people, and 11% of cis straight people. Among trans subjects, a whopping 46% of ace trans people have attempted suicide, the highest among all sexualities studied.

Now let's get into people's perspectives of asexual people. A 2012 study in the Group Processes & Intergroup Relations academic journal examined people's prejudices against various various sexual orientations. According to a findings summary in Psychology Today:

• Relative to heterosexuals, and even relative to homosexuals and bisexuals, heterosexuals: (a) expressed more negative attitudes toward asexuals (i.e., prejudice); (b) desired less contact with asexuals; and (c) were less willing to rent an apartment to (or hire) an asexual applicant (i.e., discrimination). Moreover, of all the sexual minority groups studied, asexuals were the most dehumanized (i.e., represented as “less human”). Intriguingly, heterosexuals dehumanized asexuals in two ways. Given their lack of sexual interest, widely considered a universal interest, it might not surprise you to learn that asexuals were characterized as “machine-like” (i.e., mechanistically dehumanized). But, oddly enough, asexuals were also seen as “animal-like” (i.e., animalistically dehumanized). Yes, asexuals were seen as relatively cold and emotionless and unrestrained, impulsive, and less sophisticated.

The same study also revealed that, of the sexual minorities studied, those surveyed also reported being least willing/likely to rent an apartment to someone who is asexual or hire them for a job. (The latter of which is especially jarring since asexuals are not covered under the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.) Asexual people also, like other members of the LGBT community, experience discrimination when trying to adopt children.

And, in regards to marriage laws, asexuals also experience discrimination in divorce proceedings due to the fact that not consummating a marriage is grounds for annulment, meaning if the marriage between an allosexual and sex-repulsed asexual spouse is dissolved if the allosexual partner initially was okay with not having sex but changed their mind, the ace spouse is ineligible for divorce benefits such as alimony.

TL;DR: There's a lot of human rights and discrimination protection that the ace community needs too.

April 08, 2020 at 12:01AM