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Exhibit A


GeoffBrady

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I'm writing on behalf of maaple to tell you about our new campaign, Exhibit A.

At maaple, we're trying to achieve three things: equality for asexual spectrum people; a comprehensive sex and relationships education for children that includes asexuality; and to create a safe, tolerant and inclusive culture for asexuals to live in. While we operate mainly in the UK, we hope that by making changes here other countries will follow.

We believe that raising awareness at this stage is essential for winning hearts and minds to be able to achieve all our goals. I believe it's fair to say that most people in the world do not realise the struggles and obstacles that asexual spectrum people encounter — many are not aware of asexuality at all. In order to achieve our aims, we need more people to be aware that we exist, that we have struggles, and that change is necessary.

So Exhibit A is open for everyone: regardless whether you're ace or not, whether you're out or not, whether you're in the UK or not. The campaign is fairly simple: print out a poster and take a selfie with it. This selfie is evidence of asexuality existing, whether you are a prime example of asexuality yourself (Exhibit A), or you know asexuality exists and are willing to testify on our behalf (Supporting Evidence), or you want to provide evidence but you cannot at this time (Withheld Evidence). We know that it's hard to come out, particularly if you feel endangered or threatened; so you do not have to reveal yourself if you're providing Withheld Evidence and you can post anonymously to our Tumblr site.

You can decorate these posters in any way you like. You can add a personal touch with slogans, hashtags, flags, colours, doodles… that's up to you. All we ask is that add a few tags to your posts so that we can see your creations! You can post them on Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, your bedroom wall… anywhere. That's up to you.

Please visit our campaign page to get more information and to access the posters. I'll keep an eye on this page so if you have any questions, feel free to reply, or you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and ask.fm (or use our contact page).

—Stephen

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demiandproud

Hi Stephen,

Thank you for working to make asexuality a little more visible in Europe. I think it's great to see activists on my own side of the Atlantic working on it. I had three questions, so I figured I might as well post them to you here, since they might be of interest to others:

Two with regards to this campaign:

1) What definition of asexuality are you working with? I'm on the asexual spectrum and in the asexual community, but I'm demisexual myself, and there are many like that, gray-asexual, questioning and unclear as well.

2) I'm not comfortable connecting my sexuality to my real name and face on the internet. I imagine that's true for many, especially those like me who are new to their (a)sexuality, and even more so if being asexual would not be appreciated in peoples' local environments. And unfortunately, also because women and anyone openly genderqueer faces harrassment in unmoderated virtual spaces. What alternatives and safeguards are there for us? I.e. can you tell us a little bit more about how Withheld Evidence works? Or what control people have over publication of their pictures and identities if they choose to be an Exhibit A or Supporting Evidence?

To answer my own question: "Note — If you want to hide your face and your identity, that’s cool. You can submit them to us anonymously on Tumblr and you don’t even have to have an account. Just head over to our Tumblr submissions page and send them there. We’ll put them on our Tumblr page, so please make sure that you’re ok with the photo before you submit!"

And one that's unrelated:

3) What're MAAPLE and (maybe) other European asexuality organisations doing when there's a big-ass two-week European Pride in Amsterdam, summer of 2016? Any plans for participating?

Sorry if I sound like a sceptic, I honestly am very enthusiastic to hear about your new campaign but these are the question marks hovering over my head and I figure the extra info can't hurt for people on the fence about this... so consider me the kid prodding you in the side going "that's so cool... but what? how? why? tell me!"

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Hi demiandproud! I'll answer your questions right now!

1) What definition of asexuality are you working with? I'm on the asexual spectrum and in the asexual community, but I'm demisexual myself, and there are many like that, gray-asexual, questioning and unclear as well.

We're using the term to incorporate all on the asexual spectrum. We purposefully left a lot of whitespace on the posters, for example, so that people could write "Grey" next to "A" in "Exhibit A". Part of our education aim is to incorporate the asexual spectrum in sex and relationships education, since we feel that this has a relevance for everyone: no-one experiences sexual attraction all the time, and so it's ok when it doesn't happen.

2) I'm not comfortable connecting my sexuality to my real name and face on the internet. I imagine that's true for many, especially those like me who are new to their (a)sexuality, and even more so if being asexual would not be appreciated in peoples' local environments. And unfortunately, also because women and anyone openly genderqueer faces harrassment in unmoderated virtual spaces. What alternatives and safeguards are there for us? I.e. can you tell us a little bit more about how Withheld Evidence works? Or what control people have over publication of their pictures and identities if they choose to be an Exhibit A or Supporting Evidence?

Hope that you answered your own question! We noticed there would be a need for Withheld Evidence and, in some ways, these are the voices that are most important. They aren't vocal for obvious reasons, but that means that we have to listen to them more carefully and give them the opportunity and time to speak. There are no time limits for this campaign, so there is no rush. And if there is anything we can do to help you get your voice heard and your message seen, we're very keen to hear from you.

3) What're MAAPLE and (maybe) other European asexuality organisations doing when there's a big-ass two-week European Pride in Amsterdam, summer of 2016? Any plans for participating?

Great question! The short answer is: we'd love to be there, but we can't at this time promise to. At the moment we're discussing our options for how to raise funds so that we can take part in events like this and to get our voices heard in pressure groups. I believe that there is a World Pride event in Madrid coming up in 2017 as well. A few of us attended Pride in London earlier this year, but really as members of AVEN, rather than for maaple itself. We'd dearly like to march and set up stalls at these places, but it's a question of money: how we can raise it and the legal implications of doing so.

Scepticism is ok! I hope I've answered your questions. We're still very young as an organisation and finding our feet. We hope this campaign proves to be fun as well as worthwhile!

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demiandproud

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. It seems you've thought it through pretty well.

I'm glad you're so inclusive, and I think the Withheld Evidence category is very helpful, I just wasn't too sure about participating from your post on this forum...

I can understand about practical constraints. Thanks, though, maybe see ou in 2016 or 2017 ;)

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I do love The Netherlands and to visit Amsterdam again would be amazing (on a personal level!). I hope we can get something sorted! ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

By means of an update, I've posted an update with some awesome photos on our site! And you're very welcome to take part!

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Wow, Durham LGBT have an Asexual Rep now?! I missed out!

A lot of student unions have "Welfare Reps" now which include LGBT, so Durham is a little ahead of the game, it seems!

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