Is There a Problem With The Trevor Project Including Asexuality in Its Training Materials?
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- Category: Cake Recipes
- Published on Thursday, 19 April 2012 15:28
- Written by Lara Landis
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Aces do not agree on whether or not Asexual oppression exists. LGBT responses to news of the Trevor Project adding Asexuality to its training materials may make a mild-mannered Transgender Asexual individual change their mind about the idea of oppression. The oppression has increased in recent months and it has come from certain segments of the LGBT population.
"You think that girl is cute, but deep down, you can’t imagine having sex with her? Well, it could be related to deeply ingrained social messages about how Gay sex is wrong, but let’s just say you’re Asexual instead! Here, you can platonically cuddle with this straight girl who doesn’t like it when she’s touched nonconsensually. What? What’s “rape culture”? That’s not a thing! There are plenty of bitches who love being randomly groped, TV told me so! See ya later, kids! Don’t kill yourselves,” wrote one Tumblr user, responding to the Trevor project's press release.
However, in this case, there is a much deeper issue. People who take issue with the Trevor Project adding Asexuality to its training materials should be ashamed of themselves. The Trevor Project, unlike many of the people who have responded to its press release, understands something that the people who are criticizing it for this move do not. People who call a suicide helpline need help when they make the call. Callers to sucide hotlines need help regardless of their orientation or their politics. Trevor Project phone operators do not turn someone away just because they are anti-gay or straight. People contemplating suicide need help. The source of the help does not matter.
Asexuals suffer from mental problems just as every other segment of the population. Homoromantic, Panromantic, Biromantic and Transgender Asexuals belong to the LGBT community. Aromantics and Heteroromantics occupy a gray area, but Aromantics often consider themselves as queer, or they consider themselves to be an ally. (Asexual News often refers to members of the LGBT movement as ‘cousins’ to Asexuals).
The Trevor Project realized that Aces need this type of help from time to time. They did not ask whether or not some people felt comfortable. They did the right thing and realized that some Aces who need help will call the Trevor hotline.
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I personally don't believe asexuals are oppressed. There are no faults in our legal system that leave asexual people without rights that their straight counterparts would have. However, I do believe there is a prejudice surrounding asexual people. And as others become increasingly aware of the term asexual, more and more people are questioning whether it's real or not. Still, as I said before, there is no oppression. 
I thought I removed that sentence before publication.
@Mitchell: Invisibility and erasure ARE oppression. Every day I'm told I don't fucking exist. Trust me, that hurts. We're not mentioned in text books, we're passed over in everything. I didn't even know that asexuality existed until I was about to graduate high school. That's 18 years of being asexual and having no idea what the ef was wrong with me when I didn't have these feelings that everyone said I should have.Trust me, erasure and invisibility hurts. It's just as much oppression as the next thing.