Asexuality at the WorldPride 2014 Toronto Recap

Saturday, June 28th, was the International Asexuality Conference at Toronto’s Ryerson University. It was a big hit! A lot of people turned out for it! AVEN has a photo and video thread as well as a thread for conference feedback. A simple search for “asexuality conference” on YouTube will bring up some of the discussions. I’m sure more will be posted as well, and I’ll try to post more information as I find it. TheStar.com reported that the conference hosted the “largest gathering of asexuals ever”!

About thirty or so of us went out the dinner after the conference. Ivy had to leave for an interview with Canadian TV (I posted the link below)! I have also added a few more of her many web residences, and if you’re interested in more asexual news, I would suggest keeping up with her @swankivy account! The Bibliophibian posted a review of Ivy’s book that will be released in September of this year: The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality. Ivy has also published articles around the Internet on asexuality and her websites will guide you to them and keep you up-to-date. For example, here’s one she recently got published on TheToast.com: “‘Enjoy Your Houseful of Cats’: On Being an Asexual Woman”.

For the purposes of archiving, AVEN had a Facebook page and hashtag set up, and here are all the tweets tagged with #awp2014: https://twitter.com/hashtag/awp2014 And speaking of books, I would also like to include this free Smashwords ebook I recently discovered: What Do You Mean You’re Not Interested in Sex?: American Life and Law from an Asexual Perspective by Amanda C. Lee.

The WorldPride parade on Sunday was pretty amazing and a lot of fun to march in! I will have to post some photos on AVEN as soon as I have more time to sort them. It was a really great experience seeing so many people witness some real awesome asexual visibility! (Also, sorry it took me so long to get this post together; I’ve been swamped with work, school, housework, etc.)

Click here for the CTV News Video “Asexuality Conference held in Toronto,” featuring Julie Sondra Decker.

Second ever Asexual Conference at World Pride Toronto 2014

The second International Asexual Conference will be held at World Pride in Toronto this year, following the first Asexual Conference at the 2012 World Pride in London.

The conference will involve workshops, panel discussions and a full press conference. Some topics for panel discussions include the history of asexuality and the latest in asexual research. Read more here…

Posted on Pink News.

The International Asexuality Conference is also posted at the WorldPride website.

Only 2 days left to contribute!

Help Make AVEN World Pride Inclusive!

From David Jay:

We want to make the International Asexual Conference as inclusive as possible. To that end, we need to raise enough money to hire a team of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters for the day ($3,300). Please help us welcome the Deaf people in our communities who want to participate in our conference, and who deserve to be able to do that just as much as everyone else.

On top of helping to make this event accessible to Deaf people who wouldn’t be able to benefit from the conference without your donations, you will also be helping build a positive relationship between the Asexual and Deaf communities so we can work together toward accessible asexual community events for years to come.

We are very grateful for all contributions.

Regardless of whether you can contribute, please register for the conference.

Reblogging: Call for projects at the International Asexual Conference

Reblogging: Call for projects at the International Asexual Conference

Got a project idea for raising asexual vis awareness? Want to attend the largest North American ace gathering in history? Click here to read more.

See you in Toronto!

The Asexuals Project

While I quite busy at the moment, I had to include this website since I just now stumbled upon it! The project is based in Italy and Spain, which may be why it fell through the cracks for me, but I just had to feature it on this blog!

The Asexuals Project is “an ongoing multimedia web-doc created by the photographer and journalist Laia Abril.” This is a great journalist piece that really helps with asexuality visibility. I hope it continues to grow in popularity in the U.S.!

Also, check out their Facebook page!

I will try to post a few more items later this week. Happy reading!

Asexuality Studies Tumblr, AVEN CAKE, and More News

The Asexuality Studies Tumblr has recently begun and, in the author’s words, is directed mostly to the following audience: “Help! I’m in a freshman English class and I want to write about asexuality! What do I do?” Users are encouraged to submit any questions regarding “existing research, community statistics, or community history.”

Also, AVEN CAKE is having an Un-conference and after-party/AVEN Prom on Saturday, April 12, 2014, in New York City. Visit their WordPress site for more info!

Both resources have been added to the link list on right sidebar of this website for further reference.

Reminder: Paper and panel submissions for the Regulating Intimacy Graduate Symposium are due April 30, 2014. The symposium will be held October 17–19, 2014 at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Please click the above link for more information.

Lastly, Columbia law professor Elizabeth F. Emens published an academic article earlier this year regarding asexuality: “Compulsory Sexuality.” She says “Part III.E discusses jurisdictions with anti-discrimination laws covering asexuality (especially p. 362 and thereabouts), as part of Part III’s broader discussion of how U.S. law looks through the lens of asexuality.” The article PDF is free to download.

Upcoming Conferences: Mark Your Calendars Now!

2014 National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) Annual Conference
This year’s topic: Feminist Transgressions
Date and Place: November 13–16, 2014, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Click here for conference registration info.

27th Creating Change Conference, provided by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Date and Place: February 4–8, 2015, at the beautiful Sheraton Downtown Denver, Colorado.
Click here for updates as they are posted.

Asexuality in the News

I found some recent mentions of asexuality in the news that I wanted to share. I hope these will invoke some intellectual discussion regarding human sexuality. Here they are in no particular order:

1. “DINEEN: A Look Into My Sex Life” by Bailey Dineen at the Cornell Daily Sun.

2. “Why Some People Become 30-Year-Old Virgins” by Christina Sterbenz at Business Insider.

3. “New Group to Bring Awareness of Cornell Asexual Community” by Emma Ianni at the Cornell Daily Sun.

Asexuality at WorldPride 2014!

Spread the word! The topic of asexuality will be featured at the Human Rights Conference at World Pride 2014 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We have entered LGBT academia and we’re here to stay!

From our Tumblr: Asexuality will be represented at the WorldPride Human Rights Conference, 25–27 June 2014. The presentation will be entitled “From bananas to zucchinis: How talking about asexuality can contribute to queer and trans* positive, comprehensive, sexual education”.

See also: http://worldprideasexuality.tumblr.com/ More info will always be available at AVEN.

The Asexual Spectrum: Identities In The Ace Community

Extremely busy with school at the moment, but hopefully you have seen the Huffington Post’s “six-part series on asexuality,” which features some excellent resources for anyone interested in learning more about asexuality. For now, enjoy this awesome infographic! Preview text from the Huff:

“Aces say that asexuality, like sexuality, exists on a spectrum. Most asexuals, when asked, will identify two orientations: a sexual one and a romantic one.

“‘[The asexual lifestyle] allows you to see how sex and romance can be decoupled,’ said Anthony Bogaert, a professor at Canada’s Brock University and an authority on asexual research. ‘It allows you to see that when we automatically couple up romance and sex, as if they’re naturally together, that’s not true.'”

Survey at All Out

LGBT organization currently has a survey available; they want your opinions! I highly recommend identifying yourself as “asexual” if it applies!

surveymonkey.com/s/allout

As for my survey on AsexualNews.com, only 37 AVENites responded, with 29 votes for “I didn’t know it existed until now.” Despite the small number of votes, there’s nothing wrong with a little visibility! Speaking of which, I have been overwhelmed with work so I need to catch up on asexual news too. As of today, there are some interesting issues on AsexualNews.com and Sara Beth Brooks, David Jay, Swankivy, and others are clearly working hard for the asexual community.