Academics, therapists and sexuality educators call for inclusion of asexuality in the UK 2021 census

[michaeld]

As many of you know, the Office of National Statistics recently held a consultation with LGBTQ activists, academics and therapists on the proposed addition of a sexual identity question in the 2021 UK census, at which it was argued that asexuality should be included as a sexual identity. Now, a group of sexuality researchers and educators have released an open letter supporting the inclusion of asexuality in the census.

Please help us spread the letter on social media, e.g. on Tumblr and Facebook. We also have a permalink on the AVEN front page.

To whom it may concern,

We, as social scientists, therapists and educators, all involved in sexuality and gender research, are writing to support the inclusion of asexuality in any question concerning sexual identity in the 2021 UK census.

Asexuality is a sexual orientation characterised by a lack of sexual attraction to people of any gender[1]. Despite being a potentially widespread and prevalent phenomenon, asexuality has suffered from a lack of visibility and awareness, partly due to a lack of data. The best known figure at present suggests that around one percent of the population is asexual[2]. Therefore, it is most likely that the best part of a million British residents are asexual, yet we have almost no data that sheds light on the causes of asexuality, its correlates, or the implications of identifying as asexual.

Despite the low visibility, asexuality has made enormous strides in recent years and is now an accepted term in popular culture. The BBC, the Guardian, and the Times, among others, have all published articles featuring asexuality, and other articles featuring asexuality around the world are appearing in the mainstream media. Many campus groups up and down the UK and beyond include asexuality in their Pride awareness campaigns, and, as of 2012, the National Union of Students LGBT+ campaign includes asexuality. The best known asexual online community and forum - the Asexual Visibility and Education Network, founded in 2001 - boasts over 100,000 members worldwide.

Researchers are increasingly responding to a need to investigate asexual identity-formations, and an increasing amount of professionals already include results of this research into their work. We have benefited from the demographic data which is available, but, as noted above, that data is limited in its scope. Indeed, most policy and other decisions relating to asexuality are made on the basis of the small amount of data and studies available.

As researchers and policymakers, we need good data to understand the special needs, if any, that asexual people have. There is evidence that asexuality might be more likely to be represented among individuals on the autism spectrum, and/or experiencing Asperger's disorder, for example, and data showing that asexuals face discrimination and stigma. There are also conflicting data showing a relationship between asexuality and gender dysphoria, and possibly higher rates of depression than in the non-asexual population. More good data would allow us to investigate and formulate policy around everyday problems that asexual people may face - or even to conclude that no changes are needed, if that is indeed the case.

No study of this size has ever before been attempted on a national scale. We believe that having data on this scale would, as noted above, be invaluable for research and policy purposes. In addition, this undertaking would undoubtedly make the UK a world leader in contributing to the understanding of this phenomenon and furthering our understanding of diversity.

We believe that including asexuality in any question on sexual identity on the census would not only validate the experience of asexual people and challenge the social assumption that all humans experience sexual attraction, but would also offer researchers an invaluable opportunity to gain further insights into this sexual identity. For this reason, and the reasons noted above, we therefore support, and request, the inclusion of asexuality in any question concerning sexual identity in the 2021 UK census.

Footnotes:

[1] Prause & Graham 2007; Bogaert 2015 [2] Wellings et al. (NATSAL) 1994; Bogaert, 2004

Yours sincerely,

Meg-John Barker, PhD Senior Lecturer in Psychology, The Open University

Anthony Bogaert, PhD Professor of Applied Health Sciences Brock University

Lori Brotto, PhD Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology The University of British Columbia Executive Director, Women's Health Research Institute and Canada Research Chair in Women's Sexual Health

Gavin Brown, PhD Associate Professor in Human Geography Department of Geography, University of Leicester,

Professor Katherine Browne Professor of Human Geography University of Brighton

Mark Carrigan, PhD Research fellow, Department of Sociology University of Warwick

Karen Cuthbert, MA MRes Doctoral Researcher Sociology University of Glasgow

Matt Dawson, PhD Lecturer in Sociology University of Glasgow.

Joseph DeLappe Doctoral Candidate Faculty of Education and Language Studies The Open University

Nick McGlynn, PhD Research Fellow, University of Brighton.

Nina Nouripanah Doctoral Student (DPsych Existential Phenomenological Counselling Psychology) Regent's University London

Nicole Prause, Ph.D. Research: www.span-lab.com Liberos LLC: www.liberoscenter.com

Joanna Russell, MSc (Advanced Practice) MBACP(Accred) Accredited Sexual Diversity Therapist (Pink Therapy)

Jasper Williams National Union of Students, Wales LGBT+ Officer and sexuality educator

Morag Yule, PhD Dept of Clinical Psychology University of British Columbia

If you are or know of a sexuality researcher, educator or therapist who would like to add your name to the open letter, please PM us or email the AVEN Project Team (info@asexuality.org).

Thanks for all your help!

-michaeld (on behalf of the AVEN Project Team and Board of Directors)

[God of the Forest]

This thread has been mov....gotcha!! :P

[BreeZaps]

I am so happy.

I so agree on the autism part. I have a feeling people with autism, since some of them hate physical touch that they will dislike sex to or there being other factors.

I don't mind physical touch but I really don't want sex. I guess it's the factor of it being messy and feeling scared and uncomfortable.

[Ruqiah]

Each step is a step closer to the awareness so many of us long for. I'm hoping for the day where I won't have to explain what it means to be an asexual. Everyone knows about gay pride. Trans issues are becoming more well known too, now. We're still relatively invisible, and it'll be a huge step to have national recognition on something as large as the census, where everyone will see it as an option.

[WhenSummersGone]

Causes and special needs. Maybe I'm reading it wrong but I feel whoever wrote that doesn't take it too seriously? Sorry if I'm wrong, those things just stood out to me. They may be thinking of low sex drive?

[Bauer]

Causes and special needs. Maybe I'm reading it wrong but I feel whoever wrote that doesn't take it too seriously? Sorry if I'm wrong, those things just stood out to me. They may be thinking of low sex drive?

I think "special needs" was an overall description of the sentences to follow - meaning more likely to be on the autistic spectrum, stigma, discrimination, gender dysphoria, and depression - as opposed to sex drive, and that if the census included asexuality as an option for sexual orientation then the community could learn more about the people who comprise it and advocate for policies to protect it.

[michaeld]

Agree. Also I personally think (and this is just my opinion, very definitely not an official PT or board opinion) that there is nothing wrong with investigating whether orientations may have causes. I think people think they shouldn't talk about causes of orientations because a) it's somehow heteronormative (would you ask for the cause of someone being straight?) and b) it opens the door to trying to "cure" it, to which my answers are a) yes!, b) it needn't be used that way; the causal statement would be entirely descriptive rather than prescriptive.

And in some cases, people do report that a change in orientation can be caused by external factors, e.g. an abuse victim who lacks sexual attraction (or whatever your favourite definition of asexuality is) after and possibly as a result of the abuse. Obviously it doesn't happen in every or most cases of abuse, and many asexuals haven't been abused, but I don't think we can rule out a causal link in some particular cases and circumstances.

This is a digression though: please keep spreading the letter!

[ithaca]

This project needs a big boost on Twitter, where we have launched the #countaces hashtag and are addressing it specifically at @ONS. https://twitter.com/hashtag/countaces?src=hash

Twitter-folks, give us a hand please? :D