Awareness About Asexuality Is Growing In Australia

By Kerry Chin 

Ace Week is an annual event observed during the last full week in October. Founded in 2010 as Asexual Awareness Week, it is an international campaign dedicated to raising awareness and expanding education of asexuality. 

The asexual (or “ace”) spectrum includes a range of different identities, including asexuality (experiencing little to no sexual attraction), demisexuality (only experiencing sexual attraction after developing an emotional bond), and grey asexuality (being in the grey area between asexual and allosexual). Various micro labels also describe highly specific subsets of ace experiences. It should be noted that ace identities are defined around sexual attraction, not behaviour or sexual history, and as with other sexual orientations, asexuality is not a choice. 

The distinction between romantic and sexual attraction is particularly important to the ace community, as a lack of sexual attraction does not necessarily mean a lack of romantic attraction. It is common for ace people to describe themselves with a romantic orientation in addition to a sexual orientation.

Some of the terms for romantic orientations include hetero-romantic, homo-romantic, bi-romantic, and aromantic, which are defined with reference to the gender(s) to which one is or isn’t romantically attracted, in line with words for sexual orientations. 

Australian Asexuals At Sydney WorldPride 2023

Community is important because many ace people feel alienated in a society where sex is ubiquitous. Ace people often find relief in discovering the terminology to describe their feelings and a community that shares their experience. Beyond the internal struggles caused by feeling alone, ace people also face other issues, such as social pressure towards sexual relationships and discrimination in healthcare. 

While asexuality has been documented in older texts, the Internet has facilitated unprecedented development of the ace community by allowing ace people worldwide to find each other. From the online communities, ace people can meet up with each other in person and form local groups.

In Australia, there are now local ace groups in most major cities. In recent years, a few of these groups have collaborated to run online events for Aussie Ace Week, with in-depth discussions about various asexual issues (such as media representation, relationships, and intersectional identities) and social events. 

In Sydney, Australian Asexuals has also been participating in the Mardi Gras Parade and Fair Day since 2016. For Sydney WorldPride 2023, there will also be ace representation in the Pride Amplified program and the Human Rights Conference. 

Kerry is an aromantic asexual transgender community leader. He was recently selected as one of Sydney WorldPride’s Rainbow Champions