Sunday, February 19, 2012

Gay vs. Asexual

In the beginning of college, there was a club called "LGBT" which evolved until "LGBTA" meaning Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender" and then "Asexual" was added.  I thought nothing of it at the time, but now I'm beginning to realize that it is true, even the LGBT don't seem to allow the asexuals amongst them.

I've been an asexual since 2005.  Since that time, I've constantly had to defend the position from everyone I know.  The thing that pops up most often is "You can't be heterosexual then become asexual" and various derivations of once finding women attractive (absurdly some examples come before 2005) and previously doing things sexual in nature with a girl.  The first point is easy, many people have tried to be heterosexuals before realizing they're not.  But it's more acceptable for LGBT than it is for asexuals, I argue in my book that sexual preference is exactly that, a chosen preference on what you prefer more.  The most absurd comment of all "You masturbate therefore you're not asexual"  In biology (where the term sort of comes from) an asexual organism is one that reproduces with itself.  The fact I masturbate, should be the most easily of the concepts to grasp given the primary defintion of the word.  Yet, constantly I hear this as an argument against, and I believe those people to be retarded. 

Now for the ranting part.  I'm going to substitute "gays" for LGB.  Since I don't know any transgenders, I can't fairly include them.  When gays come out, there is an automatic acceptance pretty much from all with the exception of their parents or religious leaders.  They extremely rarely, if not never, have to deal with people saying "You're not gay because you found a member of the opposite sex attractive one time"  or "You hooked up with a member of the opposite sex, so you can't be gay."  I've seen people be married to a member of the opposite sex, than come out, and nobody bats in eye.  A man can fuck hundreds of women and come out without any doubt from other people.  Suddenly their past is irrelevant.  But when an asexual does it, they are immediately questioned.  It is something they must maintain because if they ever admit a girl or a guy is attractive, automatically they lose their "Asexual" card.  Society has not accepted asexuals as they have gays and that is probably the reason that asexuals are the ones who actually suffer what gays pretend to suffer from.  I don't care what's said behind their backs, to their faces, almost everyone is nice and accepting.  To my face, I have to constanly defend my position and get attacked because they can name a time when I either found a woman attractive or I had a crush/hooked up with a girl.  I don't have any desire to have any sexual relations with either man or woman.  That is my definition of asexuality and that is extremely accurate, I don't find it hypocritical if I find someone attractive because I don't have the next though process of "I want to do things sexual in nature with them" it stops at "I think they're attractive."

I am not of what I call "the sophomore" mentality.  In that, I do not believe people are justified in discrimination just because they have been discriminated against.  I call it the "Sophomore" mentality, because in high school, it is normally sophomores who are are the meanest to freshman because, as they try to justify it, "I was harrassed for a year, so now I can harrass people."  Therefore, I do not give a rat's ass what someone's sexual preference is.  When people come out to me, I have no reaction.  I'm so non-reactive that I often do not realize that the person believes this is something we need to continue to talk about or needs reassurance.  I judge people on what type of person they are, which has absolutely nothing to do with your sexual preference.   I react the same way to someone telling me they're gay,than if they said that have dark brown hair and dye it black.  It never crosses my mind to discredit them because I may know they have had previous relations with a member of the opposite sex or have found members of the opposite sex attractive.  I don't think it's too much to ask for the same courtesy to be shown to me!

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