Only one in six asexual people have had a universally positive experience of being out, new research has shown.
Some stats from it:
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5.7 per cent of ace people are open with all family members they do not live about their identity, compared to 21.5 per cent of all respondents
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26.3 per cent asexual people are open about their sexuality with friends, a number which is below the 33.1 per cent figure for all respondent
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ace respondents are the most likely group (83.8 per cent) to say that they avoid being open about their sexuality for fear of a negative reaction from others, compared with all respondents (69.6 per cent).
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just under half of ace people (49 per cent) said they not out to their colleagues, a far higher figure than the rate for all LGBTQ+ respondents (18 per cent).
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17.6 per cent said they had a universally positive experience of being out, this is once again a significantly different figure to than of the wider LGBTQ+ community who were surveyed (40.8)
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ace people were 50 per cent more likely to have never told healthcare staff about their asexuality, with a quarter (24.3 per cent) citing fear of a negative reaction and 8.4 per cent having had a previously negative experience.
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18.1 per cent of ace respondents said sharing their ace identity had a negative impact on their care, with the researching finding these issues were principally in reproductive health – such as smear tests – and having their asexuality assessed as a mental health condition.
More surprised that 40.8% of LGBTQ+ people say they’ve had a “universally positive experience of being out”. Seems like a really high bar of never having any negative experiences.
Feel like even without stigma or negative reactions, aces would be less likely to be out because its not exactly a topic that comes up often ime, so why bother?
There is a little bit of stigma, like aces being “prudes,” but yeah it’s nothing super jarring with loads of popular slurs for it.
And yeah it would pretty much only come up when people talk about sex in ways that assume everyone enjoys it or automatically wants it from their romantic partner. Basically just challenging relationship norms hammered in since those wild high school days…
It’s cool aces are getting more representation in mainstream media though. Not many ace characters out there for people to name off the top of their head. Todd from Bojack Horseman is the only one that comes to mind for me.
SpongeBob is another well known ace character, but that’s basically just a “sponges are asexual reproducers” joke.
L and Light from Death Note may also be, but I don’t know if that’s been confirmed by creators or just fan theories.
lol Spongebob, I gotta remember that.
L and Light… now that’s food for thought.
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