How did you come across the term 'asexuality'?

[ZhioN360]

Sorta made it up myself actually, since I thought of myself as an opposite to a bisexual (as someone who likes neither instead of both) and then googled out of curiosity, only to find out it was a real thing

[Pepipanda]

I just voted other (referring to TVTropes.org), but now I'm not sure if it might have been Wikipedia...

[oldgeeza]

Not sure how I came across the term asexuality, I remember it being on the computer, maybe something like ask.com, I looked it up one day because, as a single mid 40s person, I was out one night, I had the usual, have you got a girlfriend yet? why are you still single & the classic....are you gay? if you don't have a girlfriend, not married at my age, people automatically assume that you are gay because that is all that's left, trying to explain that I'm not interested in sex..... that just doesn't comprehend.

I asked a sexually active divorced woman a question, mainly to try & prove my point,

you are with a partner, you have been together for a while, you eventually end up in bed together but your partner doesn't want sex, what is your reaction?

Her answer? He must be gay or he's having another relationship

I then asked her

would you share a bed with someone not knowing them? not knowing whether they were gay or sleeping around?

Her answer? Go away, you can't even get a relationship!!!

[ocelots]

Benedict Cumberbatch saying something about Sherlock and asexuality in an interview he gave.

[_Kes_]

I found the Asexuality Guild on Gaia Online off of someone's profile. Once I checked out the guild, I found out about AVEN, and came here sometimes to lurk. But this was back in late 2006/early 2007 and I didn't actually make an account here until now.

[dormouse]

I marked 'other'. I knew the term from biology which meant nonsexual reproduction. But when a lesbian asked if I dated girls as well as boys, I flippantly replied "Neither. I'm asexual." Well, then I started to think about it, because up until then I thought I was hetero. I googled 'asexual support group' and ended up on Queers United where it listed an email address of someone with info on support groups in my area. She told me about AVEN. Yay!

[Trolley Girl]

When I had come across the term in biology, I knew it had to have another meaning. I mean, I had already heard such terms as heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual, so I knew that "asexual" had to have more than just one definition.

[Layale]

I found the term asexuality and AVEN through the deviantArt Group called AceWithCake: http://acewithcake.deviantart.com/

[SciFiCinderella]

Someone's blog on deviantArt. This guy who added me to his watchlist was asexual and mentioned it on his journal with a link to AVEN.

[Sockstealingnome]

I first heard it in 9th grade when my friend told me a girl at school was asexual and remember thinking, 'Is that possible?' Down the way when I was trying to figure out my orientation, the word just popped back up in my mind after being forgotten years ago.

[hydra]

When I was in 3rd grade I was flipping through the dictionary and saw "asexual". It was only fascinating because it had "sex" in the word, of course. And being in elementary school, I showed some girl and she tried to tattle.

Understanding how to put suffixes on words in the English language would give me "asexuality", but I couldn't have cared less at the time, so I didn't.

If I remember correctly, and I do, then the definition referred to asexual reproduction in single cell organisms.

[Phoenix9]

Shockingly (until I saw the poll results), Wikipedia. I was researching vegetative reproduction and something about ferns... naturally, my Wikiwalk brought me to strange places and I landed on Asexuality. I clicked the external links because I was intrigued and felt something in my head click. And so, here I am.

[geekgirl]

New Scientist, quite a few years ago now. I still have the magazine somewhere.

[Shaded]

I remember my aunt mentioned it, not towards me, but something more along the lines of 'I though I was asexual as a teenager' Right away, I figured out what it could mean because of the A prefix, so, I did what any computer nerd would do, I did the googles and found the wikipedia site. Everything just clicked from there.

[Ska-tt]

I was watching the film, Lawrence of Arabia, and searched wikipedia for TE Lawrence and it mentioned that people believed he was asexual...then I searched for asexual and then that led me to AVEN.

[Nylota]

I can't quite remember, but I'm pretty sure it was from my school's GSA club.

[Moon Thief]

The segment of 2020 a few years back.

[Vampyremage]

I selected both other and google. Other because I initially heard the word asexual in a serious context on another forum I'm a part of which peaked but I didn't really have a complete grasp of what that meant until I did a google search and came across AVEN.

[Vdougie]

I sorta came across the term by accident. I'm not sure if this is how I found it, but I think this happened before I discovered AVEN. Funny story. I googled if Spongebob was gay, and an article came up and said according to the shows producers Spongebob is asexual. I then look it up on Wikipedia, and Wikipedia talked about it.

[BirdArrow]

Voted 'not sure'. I'd always kind of known the word (I liked science as a kid, and for some reason, my teachers thought it would be enriching to stuff me full of little bits of latin-type suffixes and prefixes because I was bored in classes), and I got to thinking one day (Sex comes up a lot in high school, and I was wondering why I was so bored with it, and if that was normal.), and came back to the word. It seemed to fit me, so I googled it to see if it went beyond coral and bacteria, and hallelujah, there it was.

[Philip027]

Found it via TVtropes.

[skenasis]

A guy on another forum I used to frequent came out over said forum. I looked into it, and here I am.

[Shockwave]

I first saw the term in a sociology text book during college. It was in the Storms Model in a section on sexual orientation.

[Guest member25959]

Other. Its an unusual story, I must of mentioned it like 5 times on AVEN already.

I always knew I wasn't sexualy or romantically attracted to anyone, and when people in my class at school started dating and having sex, I started to explore my sexuality. For a time I would just explain my self with 'I don't like sex', people found that fascinating

Then I was in a Sex ed class one day, we were exploring the different sexualities, Heterosexual, Homosexual and Bisexual. It made me think 'wait, what about people who don't want sex? Do they exist?, So I ask the teacher about this, he says 'I'm not sure actually, as usual, I had half the classroom in a state of confusion.

I tried to explain how I never felt sexual attraction and never wanted to date, and of course got the 'I'm sure you'll grow out of it one day' line (from a sex ed teacher), so in that very class, I thought to myself, if you can make Theist into Atheist, then surely you can do the same for sexuality?

And wuzzah! for the next year, I thought I had invented the term Asexuality! My parents got me a laptop one christmas, so I decided I'd Google the term Asexuality, and I read the Wikipedia page with relief. I mean, I had a feeling I wasn't the only one, but I could never have dreamed of such a community like AVEN.

[AmusedByMusic]

I had never heard of anyone [asexual], or the term used as a serious sexual orientation until about 6 months ago when I googled it. I had heard of pansexual, trans, and a bunch of other terms. (Now that I think about it, the only reason I knew the word was because of science class, learning about how some organisims like amoeba were asexual-reproductively speaking). But, after realizing no matter how much I loved someone, girl or guy, no matter how "attractive" they were, I just wasn't into sex and in fact hated doing it, I made a joke with my sister, "maybe I'm asexual"....after thinking about it, I googled it and to my surprise realized that in fact it is a real orientation, I'm not the only one and even better, there was an online community called AVEN! :D

While I'm a huge supporter of the LGBT community, I don't always like how some people in that community feel the need to flaunt it or push it in everyone's faces. I think sexuality is personal, and that it's none of anyone's business but your own. BUT, (and maybe this is hypocritical) I think it is SO very important to spread the awareness of asexuality. This is because had I known it was a real thing, had I known there was others like me, I would have saved myself years of confusion, pretending and lots more.

[Hey there]

The first time I heard the term was when my mom and sister were talking about a news cast about asexuality they had seen. But I didn't really think too much about it then. When I really started to think about it, it was when I was reading a wikipedia article about different sexual orientations, and I thought, that's me!

[Sidhe]

The very first time? I found it on the webcomic Saturnalia, during my freshman year of college.

[Kakatl]

Other. I first came across it in a fanfic.

[LaughingWolf]

Googled "why do I loath sex?" and in a roundabout way found "asexuality" then AVEN

[Nieyx]

I came across it when I was trying to find a new book to read, and I found one about a girl figuring out her asexuality. I always knew about it but I never really understood what it ment. So I looked it up on Google. Read the wiki definition. Found AVEN, and made the starteling discovery that it was basically a label to something I'd been fretting about for years.