

And all of this contributes to a discouraging master narrative: there is no such thing as asexual.” Being an asexual person is a lie or an illness, and it needs to be fixed. Critics confront asexual people with accusations of following a fad, hiding homosexuality, or making excuses for romantic failures. When an asexual person comes out, alarming reactions regularly follow loved ones fear that an asexual person is sick, or psychologically warped, or suffering from abuse. But that’s where asexual people are left outthey don’t find other people sexually attractive, and if and when they say so, they are very rarely treated as though that’s okay. Most people believe that everyone” wants sex, that everyone” understands what it means to be attracted to other people, and that everyone” wants to date and mate. They aren’t sexually attracted to anyone, and they consider it a sexual orientationlike gay, straight, or bisexual.Īsexuality is the invisible orientation.

What if you weren’t sexually attracted to anyone?Ī growing number of people are identifying as asexual. A finalist for the 2015 LAMBDA Literary Award.
