Asexuality

This post is meant to serve as a general introduction to the asexual community and the umbrella that it has. Asexuality, in its simplest terms, means someone who does not have sexual attraction. Unfortunately, there's about a hundred variations of what "sexual attraction" actually means, so depending on your source will depend on the exact definition for what exactly "sexual attraction" is. People who are "anti-asexual" are often labeled "aphobic" by the asexual and asexual spectrum. It's important to keep in mind that in this context, the suffix "-phobia" can mean "fear, extreme repulsion".

Asexuality has a resource website known as "AVEN" (asexual visibility education network). It's website is: asexuality.org. It's forum/message board is "asexuality.org/en". There are numerous blogging platforms (Blogger, Tumblr, among others) dedicated to asexuality or some part of the asexual community.

First, let's clear up some mis-conceptions:

• Asexuals aren't all sex repulsed
• Asexuals can enjoy sex (they just aren't sexually attracted to the person they have sex with)
• Asexuals can go into sex-related professions (exotic dancing, sex therapy, adult industry consultant, behind the scenes on pornography sets, etc.)
• Asexuals can enjoy kink, fetishes, and/or BDSM activities
• Not all asexuals went through trauma in their life
• Not all asexuals have some kind of mental illness
• Not all asexuals are hyposexuals or hypersexuals (going by the clinical diagnosis for these two terms)
• Not all asexuals are virgins
• Not all asexuals are prudes
• Asexuals can be romantically attracted to others, they just aren't sexually attracted to others
• Asexuals can have healthy relationships of all kinds

This doesn't cover all mis-conceptions, but it covers many common ones. Unfortunately there's many tales of aphobia that can be found across the web, including but not limited to:

• Sexual coercion and sexual assault (from romantic partners and others)
• Constant teasing from peers (work, school, etc.)
• People constantly trying to tell asexuals that it isn't "natural" or "beneficial" (when this is completely false)
• Threats of violence, stalking, suicide baiting, and death threats just for being asexual
• There’s a large group of sex professions (sex therapists, sex educators, etc.) who don’t believe asexuality is a “legitimate orientation” and thus discriminate against clients

A common symbol for asexuals is to wear a black ring on the middle finger. June 2010, the official flag for asexuality was born. 

The colors mean (in order): black is for asexuality, grey is for greysexuals and demisexuals, white is for allosexuals (those who aren't in the asexual spectrum), and purple is for the overal community. 

The two most popular sub-communities of asexuality are greysexual (those who rarely experience sexual attraction and/or under very specific circumstances), and demisexuals (those who never experience sexual attraction, ever, unless they have developed a powerful bond with someone or a group of people, outside this person or group, they do not have sexual attraction for anyone). There are countless other terms within the asexual community, but since this is only a beginner's guide post to asexuality, I will not go into them.