Young adults who identify as asexual feel excluded from the wider LGBTQ community

[IwantToRetire]

From a survey of 3,695 young adults aged 18-25 27% said they “rarely or never” feel a part of the LGBTQ community. Aside from those who said they were questioning their sexual or gender identity, asexual people were most likely to say this.

18% said they “rarely” felt included and 9% said they “never” felt included.

30% of asexual young adults said they “always” feel included and 30% said they “sometimes” feel included.

39% of asexual people of colour said they rarely or never felt part of the LGBT+ community, compared to 24% of white asexual young people.

It’s also estimated that between 0.44-1 percent (295,768 to 672,200) of the UK population identifies as asexual.

The data paints a disappointing picture that suggests a significant portion of young adults identifying as asexual don’t always feel like they’re a part of the LGBTQ community.

“I hope that this research makes clear the need for greater awareness of the lived experiences and realities of asexual people, especially as we can see a wider pattern here of LGBT+ people of colour feeling excluded from our community.”

https://www.attitude.co.uk/news/a-quarter-of-asexual-young-adults-feel-excluded-from-lgbtq-community-430087/

Being childless is a perfectly legitimate option, just like being / not being sexually attracted to certain people is perfectly acceptable.
Nobody needs to wear a little badge to give these things legitimacy, everyone knows already. Where have you been? 🤷🏻‍♀️

er, you do understand that teacher are required to supervise children at break time?

Interesting reading.

I totally agree with paragraph one and three.

Massively disagree with paragraph two and four.

From what I understand you're claiming that because you don't understand asexuality/haven't experienced it, it's a nonsense/it doesn't exist/it's a conspiracy? Is that right?

Some people ARE asexual. That's how some people experience the world. Like how some people are gay or straight or bi. It's just like that.

I agree that no-one should have a label put on them that doesn't apply. I'm not aware of loads of teens being forced into labelling themselves as asexual and if that is happening it should stop! But that doesn't mean that being asexual is a nonsense or doesn't exist.

It's exists and it's valid. It's as valid as being gay. Or being straight. Or being bi.

It is valid. But it doesn't need to be recognised and celebrated by all around them. It's a personal choice, not affecting anyone else, so everyone else doesn't need to be a part of it.

you do know that your children will have staff near them, well within earshot, in their breaks and lunchtimes...playgrounds, canteens, libraries, where ever they are spending their time - those staff quite possibly know more about what your children say when you are not around than you do

But you're doing stats, you're not a chromosome expert.

choice doesn't come into sexuality at all, including asexuality

Fair enough. Replace choice with personality, so...
Still ain't nobody's business but yours. Your desperation to share it with people who aren't interested is a little odd.

Everyone doesn't know.

If they did there wouldn't be the judgement and societal pressure to live a certain way.

If everyone knew that we could all live our lives however we want there wouldn't be any need for LGB or any of the other letters in the first place! It's needed because we live in a society with a narrow view of what's 'right' and acceptable. This hurts people.

There's a really good podcast called 'Out' with Suzi Ruffell where she talks to people about their experiences of coming out and they talk a lot about childhood experiences, feeling isolated, lack of representation, not knowing that the way they want to live their lives is ok and the damage that does. It's a really interesting listen if you're interested in genuinely understanding the issue.

But including a mention of asexuality is both possible and desirable isn't it? It's not a big issue, it's not one that's hurting anyone else. It's a perfectly reasonable request.

If it's not a "big issue" why all the wailing about not feeling "included"?

I think that telling kids/young people that being childless is a perfectly legitimate option would also be good tbh. It's a shame that would make you feel 'entitled'.

To be clear I think it's entitled to expect other people with children to have to be "inclusive" of me as a person who doesn't have children, I don't expect them to "check their privilege" around me as a person without kids.

Not having children is of course "perfectly legitimate", I would have thought that goes without saying.

But @Nimbostratus100 didnt you say you were a geneticist on the XY thread? So why would a geneticist be hanging round childrens playgrounds?

It looks like the survey just asked if the respondents felt a part of the LGBTQ community or not, then assumed that if the answer was 'No' then it indicated a problem. The respondents' 'No' could just mean 'No I don't because it's of no interest to me'.

It's needs to be recognised.

I agree it doesn't need to be celebrated anymore than being straight or gay or bi needs to be celebrated.

It's not a personal choice just like being staright or gay or bi isn't a personal choice.

No-one else needs to be part of it, just like no-one needs to be part of a straight relationship or a gay relationship. But it would be nice to have a character on TV be asexual, for example. Just like it's nice to see both straight and gay relationships/families represented.

Out of interest, do you feel the same about gay people or bi people? Or is it specifically asexual people you feel this about?

How do you know TV characters aren’t asexual?

There are loads of characters who are happily single and childless and it is never explained.

Loads of characters where their sexuality or lack of is not mentioned or relevant - why make assumptions about them?

Can you explain why it needs to be recognised @NuffSaidSam
To what purpose, exactly?

But how would you portray a sexuality. You can portray someone L,G or B by love scenes. How do you portray someone asexual without a whole lecture on what asexuality is and how they feel? How would it be relevant to a characters plot development?

My apologies for not being clear.

Being asexual isn't a big issue.

Lack of representation is a big issue.

Although tbf I think I'm conversing politely and with a genuine interest in the conversation and not 'wailing', but tone is hard to gauge online! I can only promise you that I'm not wailing. Just chatting.

On the second point I agree. I'm also not asking anyone to 'check their privilege'. I'm more taking about representation and education. I think including as many people as possible in this is a good thing. I think it's great for gay kids to see gay people being represented, I think it's great for kids with disabilities to see people with disabilities represented, I think it's great for kids of varying religions to see themselves represented and I think for asexual young people it would be great to see asexuality being represented.

I'm genuinely surprised that this seems to upset people to such an extent. I don't understand the big issue with being
so against asexuality being represented in the same way that being gay/bi/straight is represented.

Out of interest, do you feel the same about gay people or bi people? Or is it specifically asexual people you feel this about?
Feel what? That it's irrelevant? Of course not, being gay or bi is entirely relevant when you're looking for a relationship.
Having zero interest in relationships affects nobody but yourself. Why are you so desperate to make this a thing which needs a spotlight shone on it?

Which ones are you thinking of specifically?

Miss marple, Hercule poirot, Sherlock Holmes,

My apologies for not being clear.

Being asexual isn't a big issue.

Lack of representation is a big issue.

I'm afraid you're still not being clear. Represented; how? Why?

As I said, to make young people (and adults tbh) aware that what they're feeling is valid and ok. That there is a community out there if they wish to find it. That there isn't anything wrong with them. That they don't need to actively try and change themselves. That forcing themselves to have sex they don't want won't 'fix them'. That it's ok to be open and speak about it.

It's all the same reasons that it's important to recognise all the other sexual identities.

Why do people feel the need to share their personal details anyway?

That camel analogy is horse shit quite honestly. My best friend at uni had no boyfriend in all the time I knew her. No one night stands, no snogs, nothing. We had a brilliant friendship and laughed all the time, we had so much in common especially the bands we liked and the books we read. Some of our friends were long term single too. So what? My own sex life took place with none of my friends present. It didn't involve them. Being into sex or not was neither here nor there, how mad to think you might need a 'community' based on this. At what point do we stop dividing and factionalising people?

I think you can feature an asexual character and their struggles just like you feature any other character and their struggles? Obviously there won't be any sex scenes, but there are loads of TV shows that feature relationships without sex.

I don't think it needs to become a lecture anymore than you have to lecture viewers about what being gay is to feature a gay character.

How it would relate to plot development would obviously depend on the show, just like how any relationship/lack of contributes to a characters development.