What Asexuals Want
Filed by: Guest Blogger
September 24, 2010 8:30 AM

http://www.bilerico.com/2010/09/what_asexuals_want.php

Editors' Note: Guest blogger Sara Beth Brooks recently completed the Leadership, Organizing, and Action: Leading Change program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She is pursuing a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies and lives in Sacramento, CA. Sara Beth is publishing a weeklong series on asexuality this week.

So why are we making a big deal out of not having sex? No one's making a law against asexuality or attacking us as a community. What's there to organize about if we're not having sex? What is it that aces want? What do we need?

We want to expand the idea of sexual freedom to include the freedom to not have sex. In our sexualized society not having sex is seen as a fringe behavior reserved for the religiously fervent. We do not discuss it, because it is assumed that everyone is young, beautiful, and horny. When sexual feelings don't develop, it can foster a kind of self-hatred that asexuals describe as feeling broken, defective, or wrong. Asexuals have a higher chance of depression and lower self-esteem than lesbian or gay people.