International Ace Awareness Day - April 6th
Good day, my dears,
*This was originally posted on Ko-fi on April 6th 2025
Today is International Asexual Awareness Day. The Ace spectrum is close to my heart and I wanted to share my love for Ace people and my own personal story with asexuality.
Ace Pride Scalemail Earrings, Large Keychain and Small Keychain
Asexuality is an umbrella and a spectrum that has a wide variety of labels to help explore, explain, and understand Ace people. Generally, being apart of the Ace spectrum means that you do not experience sexual attraction to others, or you may only experience sexual attraction if certain things are met.
If you want a quick run-down of the Ace spectrum, you can check out the links below:
Understanding Asexuality - The Trevor Project
For myself, I did use the label of Demisexual for a few years. Demisexual means you feel sexual attraction towards a person once you've formed an emotional connection with them. I would also say that I do prefer to have an intellectual connection with them as well. But, that is me personally.
In my early 20s I would have even considered myself Ace and sex neutral. However, I didn't know of these labels back them. And so, I spent many years thinking I was broken and fucked up. That there was something wrong with me. I even went off of birth control for years to see if maybe it was affecting my sexual attraction.
I can't say if birth control did affect it because I was in a fair amount of toxic and abusive situations then. I dealt with anxiety, depression and loss of loved ones throughout many of these years. But, having a label finally helped me realize that I may not be broken. It released me from the pressures I placed upon myself, and others placed on me.
Over the past several years I have come to realize that I am not an ace straight woman, nor a demisexual bisexual woman. I am a queer woman that may be bisexual/pansexual/lesbian. I don't know yet, and that is okay. This is an ongoing journey of self-discovery for me.
Ace Pride Scalemail Bracelet
I will forever be grateful for the Ace community and for the time I spent learning how to love and accept myself in ways that lie outside the norms of general society. I have learned to love myself even deeper in my every changing and ever flowing life of which I live. Accepting that it is okay to not feel sexual attraction in general, or under certain circumstances, provided me so much freedom to more easily get to know who I am, heal, and understand what I need and want in life and in relationships.
I will always love the Ace community and people who live within the Ace spectrum. Know that you are valid. You are worthy. Your feelings are valid and deserve to be respected. You deserve to be seen, and loved just as much as anyone else. And relationships are possible and beautiful for Ace people as well. I have had lovely relationships and dating experiences when I considered myself demisexual. I had a wonderful relationship with an Ace person that was just as valid of a relationship as any other no matter if we may or may not have had sexual intimacy. Asexuality is valid. Ace people deserve to be seen and loved as much as anyone else.
I see you, you are valid, and I love you,
Katherine,
Chubby Wubby Dragon Art