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Questions about history


Firebee

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Hi there, I've been seeing a lot of aspecs getting flack for not knowing LGBT+ history and where we fit in, and after recently reading one notable post that was all about how some one who was alive during the stonewall riots and the rise of the modern LGBT community claiming that we weren't there I've gotten a bit inspired to look for more information from people who are aspec and were there, because I know there were people.

 

So basically what Im hoping is that some of the older members of our community, who were around in the early years could talk about what it was like to be asexual/aromantic in the early years of the movement? Whether you were out already or even knew what aroace was. If you were there I'd love to hear your take on things ^^ Sorry if this is rude or anything.

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TheLastOfSheila

I don't think your request was rude at all, Firebee.  I think that if you peruse some of the topics in the Older Asexuals forum, you may find some of the answers that you seek. 

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What's an aspec?

 

I don't know if anyone even knew about asexuality or aromanticism back in the era of Stonewall, but I'll be interested if someone can enlighten us on that.

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11 minutes ago, daveb said:

What's an aspec?

Aspec or A Spec is short for Asexual or Aromantic Spectrum and works for either one.

 

After the article that appeared in HuffPost this past week? I'd say the argument is actually on side of the people who say the A in LGBTA is for ally. Aces did not exist as a community at the time of Stonewall or before.

 

>Hopefully a full discussion will ensue mode<

I'm going to say something I've been wanting to say for a while and it's probably not going to make anyone here happy, but it's my belief that without the aftermath of Stonewall and other things that happened in that era, Asexuality as a community would not exist. We are a product of that movement, even if there are people who would like us to not butt into their movement.

 

I'm not saying that aces and aros did not exist in and of themselves, mind, just that we did not exist as a movement or community. We would have been confirmed bachelor uncles and old maiden aunts, the odd people who might get married, if only because of social pressure (as can be seen by discussions in this particular forum). I think we do need to rethink our strategy as a community when dealing with a certain element with in the LGBT+ communities, and reading up on the history of how Gay and Lesbian groups coalesced and came together ought to be required reading for everyone. If everyone was on the same page about the history of the movement, they might think twice before saying something that will cause hurt on both sides.

 

Allies came first. They were there at the beginning. The Asexual community is relatively new to the scene - well after the 1990s rise of the internet as we know it now. We can and should stand with the LGBT community and there's plenty of folk who can and do cross over between the two communities so that we'll never be completely separate, but we really are two distinct groups and should take some pride in that too.

 

>/end<

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6 hours ago, fuzzipueo said:

Aspec or A Spec is short for Asexual or Aromantic Spectrum and works for either one.

Ah. Thanks!

I had not encountered the term before. Seems a  little too similar to "aspie", which is how I've seen some people (including people with Asperger's) refer to someone with Asperger's.

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On 6/21/2017 at 0:32 PM, fuzzipueo said:

 

After the article that appeared in HuffPost this past week? I'd say the argument is actually on side of the people who say the A in LGBTA is for ally. Aces did not exist as a community at the time of Stonewall or before.


>/end<

 

Yeah, Im fully aware the aro/ace community did not exist back then, but neither did a lot of communities. Back at that time there wasn't a word for people like us, and there was a lot more to worry about and be scared of so no one really had time to break everything down and form the smaller communities. We all just joined together for a single goal. But now we have the space to break things down and focus on the unique issues faced by the various groups that form LGBT+.

 

My biggest problem lies with people saying that we were not there at all because there was no name or community for us. Which is largely, glaringly untrue. We were there and no one will accept it because we can't point at something and go "There we are" because at that time, no one knew how to talk about us. We were just. There. So thats what I want to be able to show. To gather the experiences of people who were there, and while they may not have known then that they were aspec, they were still there and they still helped out. We didn't just come out of no where and try to hop onto the movement for fun or what ever the exclusionists are saying.


I also think it would help a lot of aspecs whoa re confused about their history and don't know the truth because of the various discourse arguments to be able to know that its not true that aro/ace people did not do anything for the movement, To be able to see older figures who helped that they can identify with. The ace discourse hurts a lot of people, and I try to do what I cant to shut it down and help out those who are hurt by it, and this is part of that.


Sorry for the ramble.

On 6/21/2017 at 11:38 AM, daveb said:

What's an aspec?

And like some one said above, its a term I came across that was used as a blanket term for all the a identities. Asexual, Aromantic, and Agender and I fell in love with it. I'd been struggling to find a way to refer to all three without just labeling it all the ace community, because that wasnt a full representation of the communities. Aspec worked for me for that. 

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22 minutes ago, Firebee said:

 

Yeah, Im fully aware the aro/ace community did not exist back then, but neither did a lot of communities. Back at that time there wasn't a word for people like us, and there was a lot more to worry about and be scared of so no one really had time to break everything down and form the smaller communities. We all just joined together for a single goal. But now we have the space to break things down and focus on the unique issues faced by the various groups that form LGBT+.

 

My biggest problem lies with people saying that we were not there at all because there was no name or community for us. Which is largely, glaringly untrue. We were there and no one will accept it because we can't point at something and go "There we are" because at that time, no one knew how to talk about us. We were just. There. So thats what I want to be able to show. To gather the experiences of people who were there, and while they may not have known then that they were aspec, they were still there and they still helped out. We didn't just come out of no where and try to hop onto the movement for fun or what ever the exclusionists are saying.


I also think it would help a lot of aspecs whoa re confused about their history and don't know the truth because of the various discourse arguments to be able to know that its not true that aro/ace people did not do anything for the movement, To be able to see older figures who helped that they can identify with. The ace discourse hurts a lot of people, and I try to do what I cant to shut it down and help out those who are hurt by it, and this is part of that.


Sorry for the ramble.

And like some one said above, its a term I came across that was used as a blanket term for all the a identities. Asexual, Aromantic, and Agender and I fell in love with it. I'd been struggling to find a way to refer to all three without just labeling it all the ace community, because that wasnt a full representation of the communities. Aspec worked for me for that. 

While I admit that I have not read as widely as I need to be truly up on the subject, none of what I have read suggests that asexuals more than a passing involvement in the beginnings of the LGBT movements of the 70s. Now, I'm not saying that there weren't any asexuals actually involved, they may not have been really all that aware of what was happening that night in 1969 or the next year when things really began to move (it had limited coverage at the time in the Village Voice and probably the local nightly news), they certainly may have been there under another nomenclature, but as an actual movement within the overall grouping? I haven't found any evidence for it.

 

Google came up with this gem: https://noapronsrequired.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/the-stonewall-riots/

Just for the heck of it, I tried "asexuals" and "nonsexuals" in the search function. No luck.

 

I don't know if this will help as it kind of backs up what I said above - that the Asexual Community is a result of rather than a part of the LGBT movements. Again, I don't think we should be apart from that movement, by any means. The paper is more about how the word queer is used and whether we should be included under the word. (I consider myself queer.)

http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1090&context=mcnair

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Firebee said:

its a term I came across that was used as a blanket term for all the a identities. Asexual, Aromantic, and Agender and I fell in love with it.

Oh, it includes agender, too? That seems odd (but I guess no odder than including transgender along with LGB). I think of sexuality and gender identity as two different things; not on the same spectrum. But maybe that's just me. There's no reason why they can't be allies and some people do come under both LGB and T. :)

 

In any case, good luck with your endeavor! 

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