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UK's first asexual rights initiative - Stonewall partners with Yasmin Benoit for the "Ace Project"


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Stonewall x Yasmin Benoit Ace Project | Stonewall

 

Launching on International Asexuality Day (6 April), the project will undertake research to explore the experiences, needs and priorities of ace Brits with a focus on employment, healthcare and higher education. 

 

The findings will be published in a report later this year, setting out actions that politicians, companies and charities can take to better support the ace community. According to the UK government’s National LGBT Survey in 2018, at least two per cent of Brits identify as asexual(the survey did not report on the aromantic population, or on any other ace identities).

However, a majority of cisgender respondents who were asexual (89 per cent) said they avoided being open about their identity for fear of a negative reaction. Almost half of asexual Brits said they were uncomfortable being LGBT+ in the UK.

 

Sadly, asexual respondents were among those with the lowest life satisfaction scores – 5.9 out of 10, compared with 7.7 for the general UK population. Awareness of ace identities has increased in recent years, Stonewall said, but there is “still a worrying lack of understanding of the needs and experiences of ace people”. 

 

The charity said ace people are “often subject to dehumanising myths and misconceptions” in the UK.

Stonewall has partnered with Yasmin Benoit – an award-winning asexual and aromantic activist, writer, speaker and consultant – on the research project, with PinkNews serving as media partner.

 

Benoit said she is “incredibly proud” to be working on “such a monumental project” and using her own “experience, platform and research background to drive ace rights forward”.

 

asmin Benoit

 

“Having worked as an asexual activist for the past four years, it has been continuously brought to my attention that there are ace people in the UK who don’t feel protected by the current Equality Act,” she added. Benoit said there is currently a “void in the research” when it comes to asexuality and acephobia that the project will “help to fill”.

 

With the Tory government stumbling from one catastrophe to the next when it comes to LGBT+ rights, Benoit said understanding the needs of the ace community is more important than ever.

“We need to make sure that it is equal for every one that falls under the umbrella,” she said.

 

“Awareness is very much step one,” Benoit pointed out. Then, “representation needs to occur” within research and data so that “we have somewhere to reference” when discussing issues impacting the community. “When it comes to data, research, reports, academia and all those things, that is where information about asexuality is really lacking,” Benoit added.

 

Stonewall CEO Nancy Kelley added that ace people have played an “integral role” in the wider fight for LGBT+ rights, but that the “needs and experiences” of this community have “too often been ignored”.

“We know that ace people face dehumanisation and prejudice from across society, including in our own community,” Kelley said.  “This groundbreaking project will directly engage with the concerns and experiences of ace people, and create a plan of action based on their needs.”

 

Stonewall and Yasmin Benoit are looking to speak to those on the ace spectrum in the UK who have experienced any degree of acephobia in education, healthcare, or the workplace. If you are interested in sharing your experiences, contact yasmin.benoit@stonewall.org.uk. Visit https://www.stonewall.org.uk/stonewall-x-yasmin-benoit-ace-project for more information on the project!

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I didn't discover the term asexual until my forties, prior to that, all I knew is that I had no interest in sexual activity, intimacy, yes, sex no, I tried it in my teens due to peer pressure and trying to gain approval from my family which didn't work, luckily for me, I'm not a looker, I'm more or less invisible and ignored by the female race, along with this, such blessings as impotence had set in, rather ironically, just before I discovered this site and asexuality, I was in hospital because I was paralised, the doctor asked about my sexual activity as they thought it could have been brought on by a sexually transmitted infection,  I hadn't heard of asexuality back then so just said that I was long term single and that I had no interest in sex, she was accepting of my comments, I guess that they have heard it before, so health-wise, I've never had any issues.

 

I worked for a large employer and every year they conducted an employee survey, it asked about sexuality, asexual was not an option and I believe that it still isn't, in the same way, after filling in my date of birth, it assumes that the person filling out the survey has been married, divorced, widowed etc but not single, I could never complete these surveys as I never got past the sexuality section. In my present job, we don't have things like that as I think I'd be in the same situation.

 

I suppose that now at my age, I don't get asked why I'm single, I don't get asked about my sexuality, my friends have always accepted me for who I am and never questioned me, because of the generation I'm from where you were either gay or straight, my family saw me as gay which back then wasn't acceptable within society so they disowned me which I guess is the only form of rejection or lack of understanding I've ever had.

 

I did watch a program on TV in which a woman who used to be on a program EastEnders was discussing different sexualities, by then I knew about asexuality, the people in the room with me wer totally oblivious to asexuality and what it was, many British people have no idea about asexuality, more Eastern European people and Americans are aware of asexuality than British people.

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Possum.Lover

I don’t have a lot of words but only just:

 

 

fuck yeah ace acceptance and pride

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Red Sun Rises

This is awesome!  HAPPY ACE DAY!!!!  What a way to start it off :D

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Captain_Tass

Hiya @oldgeeza, I think that it would be better to send the post you made here as an email to 

3 hours ago, yazybee said:

yasmin.benoit@stonewall.co.uk

so that it will be seen for sure. I'm only saying this because it would really be a shame if what you wrote was never seen and shared.

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everywhere and nowhere
2 hours ago, oldgeeza said:

in the same way, after filling in my date of birth, it assumes that the person filling out the survey has been married, divorced, widowed etc but not single

What??? This is ridiculous.

 

I was glad to see the problem of conversion "therapy" mentioned on the website because I believe that it's an issue which should be tackled. There is a growing movement towards banning this kind of interventions... and very little awareness that ace-to-allo conversion "therapy" happens all the time. It goes unnoticed because it's usually offered in a completely different "circuit" then gay-to-straight "therapy", but it is just as much a result of bias, of sex-normative assumptions which result in pathologisation of sexual non-desire and inactivity.

It's just the spelling which makes me angry. It shouldn't be spelled conversion therapy, but conversion "therapy". The quotation marks are very important because conversion "therapy" is not therapy! It's an intervention to treat something which is not a disorder, and it usually damages the victim's psychological wellbeing instead of improving it.

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Sister Mercurial

Just told them about how my GP practice threatened to remove me from the practice list for refusing examinations that people who have never been sexually active don't need and how I opted out of being contacted about it, but they ignored my opt-out and the Information Commissioner's Office did nothing about this breach of GDPR.  

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(Below is an official, green, mod message.)

 

Hi, everyone.

 

Admods would like to remind everyone that this thread and forum is for announcements, not debating.

Thank you, for your cooperation.

 

LeChat,

Welcome Lounge and Alternate Language moderator

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EmlovesSpace

Congratulations! This is big. I can only hope this is the step in the right direction and people who are not aware of the whole asexuality/aromantic spectrum can be more educated from it, and hopefully accepting of it. 

The there is one person who knows that I'm asexual but no one knows I'm also aromantic. I just wish I could be more honest about it without the judgement. I used to get asked a lot if I had a boyfriend and whenever I would say that I have zero desire, some people would look at me strange. Usually if someone asks, I'll just say that I'm not looking because I have different priorities (which is true) but there's obviously more to it. 

 

 

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