{"id":5044,"date":"2021-08-13T12:25:16","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T16:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/imprint\/?p=5044"},"modified":"2021-08-13T12:31:27","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T16:31:27","slug":"aces-allies-acceptance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/imprint\/aces-allies-acceptance\/","title":{"rendered":"Aces, Allies, Acceptance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lindsey Wright<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve always considered LGBTQIA+ to be a mouthful of an acronym. Understandably, many people, myself included, often shorten it to LGBTQ+. I remember for a while not even knowing about the I and A, and then even after hearing about them not being sure what they stand for. Eventually, through attending a presentation by UCF\u2019s LGBTQ+ Services<\/a>, I came to learn that the I stands for intersex<\/a>, which describes someone \u201cborn with differences in their chromosomes, genitals, or reproductive anatomy, compared to the usual two ways that bodies develop.\u201d However, learning about the A was somewhat less clear-cut. Some wrongly claim that the A stands for ally. This is not the case; the A is for asexual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asexuality tends to be overlooked as a sexual orientation; I\u2019d never even heard of it before 2018 and didn\u2019t understand it until much more recently. Many people who don\u2019t regularly engage with queer culture don\u2019t know what it means to be asexual, and even those who do are often unsure. We commonly associate the term with biology class and plant reproduction instead of human beings. Asexual, or \u2018ace,\u2019 individuals experience little to no sexual attraction. Asexuality is a spectrum, so people experience it in different ways. Some common identities on the asexuality spectrum include demisexuality<\/a>, or someone who only experiences sexual attraction after forming a strong emotional connection with another person, and gray-a\/gray-ace, or someone who identifies somewhere between asexual and allosexual. Allosexual is a term commonly used in the asexuality community to refer to those who do experience sexual attraction. UCF\u2019s LGBTQ+ Services offered the helpful metaphor of asexuality as an umbrella, with identities such as demisexuality and gray-ace falling underneath the umbrella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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