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Looking Back On World Pride 2017


timewarp

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In today’s post for Asexual Awareness Week we would like to look back on World Pride.

 

AVEN participated in World Pride 2017 in Madrid together with the Asexual Community España (ACEs). There was asexual participation in both the official parade on Saturday and the alternative event, the Orgullo Crítico. During pride week Michael Doré from AVEN and Pablo Ortíz Navarro from ACEs took part in an event during the Madrid Summit, ”Asexuality, Another Colour In The Rainbow”.

 

And of course on Sunday there was our own big event, the International Conference on Asexuality. It was our first conference in a non-English speaking country, so we had panels in both languages, with the help of conference interpreters.

 

We heard from local ace communities in several European countries like France, Finland and Italy. As the event took place in Spain, there were additional presentations about asexuality and asexual activism in Spain. Asexuality entered the Spanish mainstream media suddenly and from an unexpected angle - a national TV advertising campaign of a mattress producer. Several articles in the big national media followed.

 

There was a panel about asexual relationships and how they differ from other relationships, and also aromantic identities were covered in a dedicated session. In the research panel we had an opportunity to look at asexuality from very different angles. Julia Cordey presented the results of their research on psychological therapists' attitudes towards asexuality, Irene Blanco Fuente explained how asexuality is relevant from a sexual perspective and for the broader LGBTQ+ community, and Sam Rosen presented their research about AVEN from a sociolinguistic perspective. David Jay opened the conference with an overview of the history of our community and also explained how to give an asexual 101.


So, how did our participation in World Pride go as a whole? It was mixed. On the one hand the official organisers and politicians were very focused on LGBT (without even a “+”), on the other hand asexuality has been included in the Madrid Summit Declaration. The asexual float during the parade got some negative reactions from the crowd, but at the same time there were people spontaneously joining in. Maybe we haven’t quite reached the mainstream yet, but we are gradually getting there.

 

Finally I would like to thank again everybody who helped organising our participation in World Pride and the Asexuality Conference, in particular @michaeld who always manages to get an incredible amount of work done on top of a busy job and two (!) roles on AVEN (Project Team and Board of Directors).

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Chipping in here. The conference on the Sunday was a great event. 

So far as the parade goes, I personally didn't notice any negativity, although it could be because I don't speak Spanish. 

 

For the future, I suggest that the earlier we start planning for the next Worldpride the better. Given the fact that intercontinental travel is requiring ever more advance preparation. Publishing the themes of individual conference sessions in advance would also be useful, as it would give everyone a chance to present considered suggestions, rather than having to be spontaneous. 

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Thanks for the update!

 

It was a little sad to hear that there were negative reactions from the crowd, and at least one comment, (in Spanish) in the comment section of the Spanish advertisement video, but it was nice to read that most of the comments were from asexuals who were happy and grateful to see their sexuality represented on Spanish T.V. for the first time.

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Thanks all for the comments! And ooh this reminds me - I need to poke a certain Spanish ace about the videos they made of the conference. It would be nice to get some vids up. :) Another interesting thing to come out of our participation at WP might be the French documentary in the making by Jérome Oliveira. He came and filmed the parade and parts of the conference and did interviews of various people there. It will be interesting to see the result when it's out. :)

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Great job to everyone that contributed and were able to enjoy it!! : )) That's too bad there were some negative reactions. We still have some ways to go with visibility and support, it seems. But I think that it was a huge success overall!! :cake: And I enjoyed designing the graphics and pamphlets that were handed out. I hope they proved helpful to those that were there. <3

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On 27/10/2017 at 6:22 PM, kelico said:

Great job to everyone that contributed and were able to enjoy it!! : )) That's too bad there were some negative reactions. We still have some ways to go with visibility and support, it seems. But I think that it was a huge success overall!! :cake: And I enjoyed designing the graphics and pamphlets that were handed out. I hope they proved helpful to those that were there. <3

Kelico's designs for WorldPride went down a treat! They show how much one can contribute without even being in the same continent. :cake: We are getting them reprinted too for other events. (I had hoped to print them already for Reading Pride earlier this year but that didn't work out. But we will soon.  :) )

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