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Any young asexuals 13-19 on here?


DemiDee

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Sorry for my late response. I just wanted to clarify, for Sally and for PiF, that this is NOT a religious brochure. In fact, over here in the UK, we would not be allowed to place literature promoting any kind of religion in young people's centres. As a matter of curiousity however, I would be interested to learn why some AVENites seem to hold religion in such contempt (aka. Cinnamon's 'I would rather not be dragged into the religous scene'). As an asexual Christian, I can vouch for the fact that this can come across as quite intimidating for people, particularly young people who happen to be asexual and also have a particular faith. Correct me if I am wrong and I will gladly hold my hands up in error, but it seems to me that many here are highly welcoming of the LGBT groups (I don't see anyone saying they'd rather not be dragged into the homosexual scene but rather embracing it) but express distaste and contempt for anyone who is 'religious'. Christians are a persecuted minority too, you know, and much more so in recent years, so the search to identify with persecuted groups might do well to include those who are religious (I do not like the word 'religious' but use it in this context, for ease of understanding).

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Personally I feel and have said on occasion..the christians..of which we seem to have more of..do get a rough time in aven

which is wrong

I asked about religion because as pointed out abstinence is a known religious term and as such is incorrect to asexuality, abstinence being like celibacy..is a choice

as to the lgbt ..I like the groups but not the organisation with it comes to alignment with asexuality

anyway..thats for another section other than announcements

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Thank you so much for your honesty and understanding, PiF. I appreciate that very much. I can understand where you are coming from regarding abstinence being more akin to a self enforced state rather than a choice.

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I think people just wanted clarification. If there is a religious motivation behind the brochures then people should be aware of it, so that they know what they're getting into. That's all. I'm not religious and I'm pro-LGBT but I certainly would never sign anyone up for an LGBT project without telling them that that is what it is. From what you've said it's not a religious brochure, so that takes care of that. Would it be in order to inquire what group is sponsoring this leaflet - if any?

Anyway, good luck to you. Despite some of my skepticism expressed earlier, after reading mandrewliter's post I do rather hope someone here takes you up on your suggestion. Even though most readers of your leaflet will likely be sexual, if at least one asexual reads the asexual perspective and disovers who they are as a result, then this will be not a bad outcome. To anyone thinking of signing up, I'd just caution that (not only for this project but anything similar), you find out everything you can about the project before getting involved (whom it's aimed at, what the overall message is, what people are likely to take away about the asexual orientation and community), make sure you're happy doing it and other obvious things like making sure that your full name only appears on it if you're happy for it to.

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Lord Happy Toast

As an asexual Christian, I can vouch for the fact that this can come across as quite intimidating for people, particularly young people who happen to be asexual and also have a particular faith. Correct me if I am wrong and I will gladly hold my hands up in error, but it seems to me that many here are highly welcoming of the LGBT groups (I don't see anyone saying they'd rather not be dragged into the homosexual scene but rather embracing it) but express distaste and contempt for anyone who is 'religious'. Christians are a persecuted minority too, you know, and much more so in recent years, so the search to identify with persecuted groups might do well to include those who are religious (I do not like the word 'religious' but use it in this context, for ease of understanding).

I think that a bit of historical background and context can help here. Early on in the asexual community, there were just a bunch of static content sites, and then there was a yahoo group called Haven for the Human Amoeba, which was one of the first major ways for asexuals to connect with other asexuals. One member was making a webring of asexual sites, and found AVEN, then just static content posted on the Wesleyan account of a college freshman named David Jay. The amount of content on the yahoo group got pretty overwhelming for a yahoo group, and so DJ obtained asexuality.org and set up forums here in May 2002. About a month earlier--and entirely independently--a genderqueer individual (Nat), had created the community Asexuality on LiveJournal. They had come up with ideas about asexuality from trans forums and trying to find language to distinguish between lack of gender and lack of sexuality. The asexuality community was set up with the aim of being a sex-positive forum to talk about asexuality.

David and Nat found each other and worked a lot on creating AVEN. Both were actively involved in LGBT groups on their campus. That was their political bent, and that is reflected in the communities they created, the ways of looking at/thinking about asexuality found in the static content, who AVEN tried to do outreach to, etc. AVEN was by far the best designed site about asexuality (in terms of making it possible for people to come together and talk about thing relating to asexuality); and by having the admod system, it created a mechanism for new people to become leaders in the blooming community. This was necessary for creating a politically viable movement, and ensuring that it's not just a one-person show. (Another early asexual community--The Official Asexual Society--ended up a failure, and one of the main reasons was that it was mostly just a one-woman show.)

Now, because of this community's connection with LGBT stuff in its approach, it tended to attract like-minded people, with the effect that religious conservatives (which is NOT all religious people) tend to feel out of place here, thereby reinforcing the selection bias. In the more left-leaning parts of society (and in the LGBT community) there is often (but certainly not always) intense dislike of religion, probably related to the fact that certain religious groups tend to be their biggest political opponents; the result is that such individuals tend to be rather common around here.

I grew up an Evangelical Protestant and was very religiously active in college. Over time, I came to find many of the beliefs untenable, and on the issue of homosexuality in particular, I found my religion taking me one way but my conscience the other way. Eventually, my conscience won out. I remained religiously active, but in more open part of Christianity. Recently, I haven't been going to church all that much, though I keep telling myself I should go more often.

When I first found out about asexuality, I had already changed my view on sexual ethics, finding that the conservative one I had grown up with was ultimately harmful. At the time, I wondered how well I would fit in around here if I hadn't changed my views on the matter; I expect that I wouldn't have fit in well at all. Anyway, I hope this helps to put things in perspective.

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Thank you for such a well written and thorough account of AVEN's history, Manrewliter. I will read it again more thoroughly later, when I have more time. The time you have spent in writing this and in being so open and helpful has not gone unappreciated.

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nibs.space.cowboy

Ahoy all, I am a 16 year old Ace. As to the whole religion issue, there is far more judging and close-mindedness that I have seen from the religious community then I have from to LGBT community, so while I do not identify with either, I am more willing to associate myself with the latter than the former

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(here is the latest age census)

There is a section for 'older asexuals' here but nothing, as far as I can see, for those who are perhaps young enough to just be discovering the fact that they're asexual.

http://www.asexuality.org/en/index.php?/topic/24976-faq-how-old-are-you-2007-version/

way ahead of you there i think ;) :P 8) :lol:

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MÃ¥skemigselvetsted

That's not really fair Bøøm! To write that I'm not allowed to click on your link. Of course, now, I couldn't not click :P

But it's some amazing pictures (:

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I'm 19, although twenty in less than a month.

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Cameron Drew

*waves* hey, It's a young asexual here, I'm a fifteen year old Ace. Though I feel much, much older.

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Guest Member_38590

I turned 14 on March so yep. On the topic of religion, I think it still depends on the person. The whole not putting a stereotype and a tag on each social collective is something universal, and I know more homophobic atheists, even though I'm one. A huge part of the religious community is indifferent to these matters x)

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Sorry for my late response. I just wanted to clarify, for Sally and for PiF, that this is NOT a religious brochure. In fact, over here in the UK, we would not be allowed to place literature promoting any kind of religion in young people's centres. As a matter of curiousity however, I would be interested to learn why some AVENites seem to hold religion in such contempt (aka. Cinnamon's 'I would rather not be dragged into the religous scene'). As an asexual Christian, I can vouch for the fact that this can come across as quite intimidating for people, particularly young people who happen to be asexual and also have a particular faith. Correct me if I am wrong and I will gladly hold my hands up in error, but it seems to me that many here are highly welcoming of the LGBT groups (I don't see anyone saying they'd rather not be dragged into the homosexual scene but rather embracing it) but express distaste and contempt for anyone who is 'religious'. Christians are a persecuted minority too, you know, and much more so in recent years, so the search to identify with persecuted groups might do well to include those who are religious (I do not like the word 'religious' but use it in this context, for ease of understanding).

DemiDee, I'm a religious Jew. I haven't noticed that Christians are a persecuted minority, but then maybe my idea of persecution is not your idea of persecution. However, don't assume that someone who questions whether something is an attempt at religious indoctrination is not religious. AVEN is made up of many different people, some not religious and some religious, and the latter are not all Christian. Religion doesn't equal Christianity, and questioning does not equal lack of religion.

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