FIGHTING THE ‘CURE’
the organization of ace-inclusive
groups and events.
Today, Brooks is active in the
asexual community on Tumblr and
is one of the leaders of the Partnership for Asexuality Visibility
and Education, an asexuality political advocacy group that launched
this summer. Brooks says she
hopes PAVE will bring more visibility to asexuality, while also
building partnerships with other
like-minded groups, organizing
around asexual policy issues and
nurturing future asexual activists.
Brooks added that many other
similar projects, including activist
blogs and ace-positive groups on
spaces like college campuses, are
beginning to crop up in the United
States and elsewhere.
AVEN founder David Jay
points out that in recent years,
asexuals have finally begun to
assert their presence at Pride
events around the world.
“We take part in least one or
two big events every year,” he said.
“Usually, there’ll be one in Europe
and one in North America.”
Last July, for example, AVEN
held a conference in London as a
complement to WorldPride 2012,
an international LGBT awareness
celebration. More than 120 people
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from 13 countries attended, and
the AVEN group also took part in
the larger festivities, walking in
the parade and giving out educational pamphlets.
Filmmaker Rodney Uhler even
created a short documentary,
Not Broken, Not Alone, about
the aces who participated in last
year’s event.
All this activism, Brooks said,
has been vital for the health and
“... sexual desire is considered
a key component of human
nature and those lacking it are
viewed as relatively deficient,
less human and disliked.”
progress of the ace community.
“Many asexuals describe the
experience of feeling alone. It was
— and still is — a very isolating
experience to talk about asexuality when no one else around you
understands it, not even a little
bit,” she admitted. “This has been
a way of breaking down this feeling of severe isolation. It may only
be a whisper right now, but
there’s no longer silence.”
Dominique Mosbergen is an associate
editor at The Huffington Post.