OU’s LGBT Center to hold Asexual and Aromantic Awareness Week and invites students to learn more about asexual and aromantic identities.
Gay and bisexual identities are often discussed in movies and TV shows, but asexual and aromantic identities are often left untouched.
Ohio University's LGBT Center will be celebrating Asexual and Aromantic Awareness Week to educate and spread information about these lesser known identities.
Asexuality refers to individuals who experience strong emotional connections to others, but do not want to have sexual relations with the person or people they form a strong bond with, delfin bautista, director of the LGBT Center, said.
“There are some asexuals who stay single, but there are also many asexuals who enter into a relationship,” bautista, who uses they/them pronouns and the lowercase spelling of their name said. “They just don’t have sex or don’t have sex a lot.”
On the other hand, aromantic refers to individuals who are not interested and do not have the desire to enter into a relationship — “especially a romantic relationship with people or a person,” bautista said.
An event that will be held on Wednesday is a monologue event, similar to the The Vagina Monologues, titled Acepower + Aroawesomeness = Amazingful. While the event may not be as large as The Vagina Monologues, it is “just an evening for people to share their stories and their experiences,” bautista said.
Being asexual or aromantic does not mean that a person doesn’t have relationships or can’t form bonds with people, Sam Haug, a sophomore studying wildlife biology and global studies - war and peace, said.
“(The relationships) are just not romantic (for the person), Haug, who is a student worker at the LGBT Center, said.
Haug also said the identities don’t have to align to each other.
“Some people are both asexual and aromantic, and some people are only one and may have other identities,” Haug said.
The LGBT Center will also be screening a series of films from the Asexual Awareness Week website Friday, Haug said.
The films are made by people who identify as asexual and will “focus on their lives, their experiences and what it means to them to be part of the community,” Haug said.
“This week is an opportunity to raise awareness about the existence of asexual and aromantic folks who are here on campus,” bautista said.
Previously, the LGBT Center has held Asexual Awareness Week according to a previous Post report. However, this year, the LGBT Center has included aromantic identities to the discussion.
“(We hope to) raise awareness (and) address misconceptions and misperceptions of the community, as well as to give the community a voice, an outlet to share and to have some visibility,” bautista said.
Like with every other identity, there is no one way to be asexual or aromantic, bautista said.
“It is like everything (else),” they said. “It’s messy and it’s a spectrum.”
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