michaeld Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Many of you will have been following the recent campaign by GLAAD and the discussion it has generated on social media. The AVEN Board of Directors and Project Team would like to release the following statement on the matter. A is for Asexuals, Aromantics, Agender people… and for Allies GLAAD, an internationally renowned LGBT rights organization, created a campaign called “Got your back” with the tagline “A is for Allies”. At AVEN we hugely value the role that allies play in our community and in the wider LGBTQ+ movement. However, “A” stands for Asexual, Aromantic and Agender people as well as Allies. The phrase “A is for Allies”, used in isolation, conjures memories of marginalization and exclusion from LGBTQ+ groups for many asexual, aromantic and agender people, for whom invisibility and erasure are still huge problems. We applaud the many activists who brought this issue to wider attention. We also applaud GLAAD for revising their campaign accordingly and acknowledging asexual, aromantic and agender people, and the issues they face. GLAAD illustrated the allyship that they celebrate as an organization by correcting their honest mistake and taking a firm stance on the inclusion of agender, aromantic, and asexual people in the LGBTQ+ community. We hope to work closely with GLAAD in the future, both to ensure better representation of asexuality, aromanticism and agender identities in popular culture, and to act as good allies ourselves for the wider LGBTQ+ movement. For more information, visit asexuality.org, asexualawarenessweek.com or write to info@asexuality.org for general information and press@asexuality.org for media requests. Link to post Share on other sites
Zerο Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Nice, their tupperware is pretty good too. Link to post Share on other sites
marki Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Also their trash bags are top notch. Link to post Share on other sites
GoldenaLy Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 I was happy to read their revised statement. Hopefully it will bring greater awareness of asexuality within the LGBT population, too! Link to post Share on other sites
Llama-Overlord Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 And to think all this time I've been buying Hefty trash bags... But seriously though, insane that an LGBT... Group wouldn't think to include us... Insane. Link to post Share on other sites
CNGB Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 I'm not really surprised that they didn't think about us. We're still not really that known. Had they ignored the issue then I'd probably call that a mixture of rude and insane, but I can forgive GLAAD because they did recognize their mistake and fixed it. Link to post Share on other sites
Sally Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 They've traditionally been a support group (started by parents) for gay people. I don't blame them for not knowing about us. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 I'm not really surprised that they didn't think about us. We're still not really that known. Had they ignored the issue then I'd probably call that a mixture of rude and insane, but I can forgive GLAAD because they did recognize their mistake and fixed it. With the quick and understanding revision, I can do more than forgive them. To me, their reaction and publication of the revision was an unabashedly good occurrence in terms of ace visibility. We're better off reserving any grudges for stubborn bigots, not for folks who make honest mistakes and oversights and are ready to correct themselves when wrong. The latter is simply education in progress. :) Link to post Share on other sites
GrayAgenderNoPenetray Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 yes i certainly did.. i actually just discovered that they were using A for ally a week ago and then they just announced the change yesterday. i'm new here by the way. education in progress most definitely and all i can say is Finally! Link to post Share on other sites
warrigan Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 weren't they also the ones that removed "asexual" from the orientations list on a transgender flyer a while ago? :/ anyway, great response! Link to post Share on other sites
GrayAgenderNoPenetray Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 LGBTQPA should include GrayAsexual, Asexual, and Agender. until the A is fully recognized so many people will continue to be excluded and our ability to raise awareness will be limited as usual. Link to post Share on other sites
dash Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 weren't they also the ones that removed "asexual" from the orientations list on a transgender flyer a while ago? :/ anyway, great response! Yes, exactly. They needed some outreach and education. I don't believe that when they made that flyer, the removal of asexual was an accident. I don't know why they did it, and we may never know, but no, that does not look like an accident, as some have graciously offered. Maybe they didn't know what asexual meant, and deleted it rather than look it up? Here's hoping they learned from their missteps and this doesn't happen again! P.S. We may want to ask them to revise their flyer and put asexual people back. Link to post Share on other sites
Sarika Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Let's remember it was an individual more then likely then the orginization at large that edited the flyer. Does out reach still need to happen, obviously with these incidents, but as a whole they are seeming to try to adapt to what was invisible to them before. Link to post Share on other sites
Kelly Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 That is an awesome statement, michaeld. I hope that it does help them to recognize us. Thank you and all who contributed. Link to post Share on other sites
dash Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Let's remember it was an individual more then likely then the orginization at large that edited the flyer. Does out reach still need to happen, obviously with these incidents, but as a whole they are seeming to try to adapt to what was invisible to them before. Oh, I agree they do seem to be adapting, yes. But I don't know how the decision to remove asexuality from the flyer was made. Maybe it was just an intern working on their own, and telling no one. Maybe there were more or higher level people involved in making that decision. We don't have any information. It is precisely because they are now trying to change that I think we should remind them about the flyer, and MIT's version, and ask them to put asexuality back. We should embrace their philosophical change of heart and show them some very specific places in their body of work where they can include asexual, agender and aromantic people. This is the one that I know of. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.