Graysexuals and celibacy

[That asexual guy]

Since asexuality is different from celibacy, I would just like some thoughts on these two sentences from a couple of posts on the Thinking Asexual blog:

"A gray-a can strongly prefer celibacy"

"Some gray-a’s experience sexual attraction but don’t actually care about having sex enough to bother and are perfectly content to be celibate"

So asexuals aren't celibate if they don't have sex but gray-asexuals are?

[~RedArcher]

Anyone of any sexuality, gray or not, can choose to be celibate.

Celibacy is a choice people make not based on their desires alone, but through morals, religion, past experiences, personal opinions - you name it.

Even before I discovered I was Ace, I knew I was celibate. Sex is just - ugh, no. No no no no no.

It's a personal life choice, like choosing to vote or choosing to get married.

[Guest]

Everyone who doesn't have sex is celibate, and that does include asexuals. Celibate simply means "not having sex", and we shouldn't conflate it with abstinence (which, indeed, aces can't be as they don't have any desire for sex to resist. Grays do have that desire, even if it's far rarer/less intense/more conditional than it is for sexuals, so unlike aces, grays can be sexually abstinent.)

EDIT: corrected one glaringly stupid mistake in the last sentence... seems folks understood what I meant, though.

[JohnDoe1995]

Celibacy is a choice not to have sex based on many reasons (religious, moral, etc.). Being asexual doesn't automatically make you celibate, as many asexuals do have sex for many reasons (pleasuring their partners, stress relief, self pleasure, etc.). If an asexual chooses to have sex, he/she is not celibate, if not, he/she is celibate (same goes for gray-As).