Asexuality forum delves into alternative lifestyles

Jacqueline Brixey
Scott Bressler

As part of Sex Week, the Pride Alliance and the Alternative Lifestyles Association hosted a discussion on asexuality Monday night in Ursa’s Fireside.

The event featured David Jay, the founder of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), and Shelley Protte, the St. Louis representative of the organization.

Jay highlighted the differences between asexuality and celibacy, explaining that while celibacy is a personal choice, asexuality is a sexual orientation.

The forum strove to highlight the concerns that asexuals face and to explain the importance of their identity.

“We try to recognize the identity of the person,” said Lori Weingarten, co-president of Pride Alliance. “Not all see [asexuality] as a lifestyle. GLBTQIA is, for some people, who they are.”

Many asexuals have difficulties sharing their experiences because asexuality is often misunderstood.

“[When I found AVEN] I felt relief, like a massive burden had been taken off of my shoulders,” said Protte.

Grant Barbosa, a freshman and co-president of Pride Alliance, said that the group invited AVEN to speak since it was the most prominent and most well-known asexuality organization.

AVEN is committed to providing a community for the discourse of asexuality and to facilitating the growth of an asexual “safe zone.”

Jay first founded the group in 2001 when he discovered only one article on asexuality online. He described how people had left their life stories as comments on the article.

“[Community] is important, it’s empowering, it’s us,” said Jay.

In 2002, the Web site became an online forum, and the Welcome Area was created for people to post life experiences.

Since the Web site became a forum in 2002, AVEN has seen a “massive explosion of discourse” globally.

Jay believes this is because of Google, as it offers a method for the asexual community to connect and find more information.

Even with the knowledge spreading worldwide, Jay holds that “our community is still very new [and] there is still a lot we don’t know.”

After Jay and Protte’s initial discussion, a question-and-answer session followed, with an opportunity to ask the speakers questions on an individual basis.

In the coming months, Jay will be meeting with other groups around the nation, following an appearance on Montel on Jan. 4.

In his final remarks, Jay encouraged the groups to “provide discourse” and expressed hopes that the online forum will continue to provide “a language in which to understand the asexual identity and how to think about it.”

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