godlessace:

The 2011 Asexual Awareness Week team conducted an internet census, receiving over 3000 responses. Some of the results had been released before, but now we have better analysis.

Analysis of the 2011 Asexual Awareness Week Community Census

Thanks to AAW for hosting this document.

In case it isn’t clear, the person who did the analysis was me.  If you have any questions about the analysis, or want to know a statistic that I did not include, please ask.  (I have disqus comments below!)

Have you ever wanted to get more involved in asexual visibility efforts? Ever wanted to have something you designed be seen by thousands of admiring eyes?

Well, we’re currently looking for creatively-minded individuals to submit t-shirt design ideas for the upcoming WorldPride march in London this summer! The results will be worn with pride by a contingent of aces and allies from all over the world as we march through London to prove to the world that yes, asexuals exist, and we’re pretty awesomely asexy!

Not an artist? Don’t have the means to create an actual image of your complete design? No worries - just send us a general description of your idea, and if it’s chosen, we’ll find a way to make it into reality!

For inspiration, try looking at our banner design or placard slogans!

If you have any questions about the contest, or for more information about WorldPride in general, please feel free to drop us a line at worldpride.aces@gmail.com, or check out the dedicated WorldPride subforum on AVEN for updates or ways to get involved.

Submission Requirements:

Designs should include a clearly displayed and readable reference to The Asexual Visibility and Education Network, and/or asexuality.org, as well as a reference to “Worldpride, London 2012” (or some variation thereof).

Maximum size for t-shirt designs is 40cm by 27 cm; one design for the front and one for the back. All designs should be at least 300dpi at the intended final size. Designs may use only two colors: ink color and background fabric color. final shirts will be purple and white.

In addition, please keep in mind the style guidelines below when creating your entries.

The deadline for submission is June 2, 2012. All submissions should be sent to worldpride.aces@gmail.com, and should include a copy of your design, an email address that we can use to contact you, your name, and any other information you would like to include. 

Design Guidelines:

~ Keep it relevant: designs should be asexuality-themed - for example, frogs may be cool, but they aren’t very relevant to the ace community. If you wish to use symbols not usually associated with ace pride or the ace community, please explain why you chose them!

~ Keep it simple: Try not to make the design too complex, and consider it practically. We want something that will be easily understandable at a glance, but still eye-catching. Try to avoid using photos or pictures

~Keep the message in mind: Be aware of the message your design conveys. Pride is huge opportunity to raise visibility, assert ourselves as legitimate and as representatives of our orientation, and designs should reflect that. Designs do not have to be super strict, but a design based on in-jokes like cake or Sherlock, for example, is unlikely to be taken as seriously by people not familiar with the asexual community.

~Keep it appropriate and legal: No profanity, swear words, or explicit content, please. In addition, please do not include copyrighted images or other trademarked logos or brands in your designs, with the exception of official AVEN symbols. 

Even if your design is not chosen for the shirts, your idea may still be chosen for stickers, leaflets or other vis/ed materials.

Also, please note that all designs are not final and may be subject to changes made by the WorldPride committee. By submitting entries into this contest, you are giving permission to use, reproduce, or modify any designs submitted with the understanding that the final design will be paraded publicly and is likely to appear in photographs and film which may be broadcast or made available for viewing online.

WorldPride is both a fun event and a fantastic visibility opportunity, so send in your design ideas and help us make it even more awesome! 

The GLBT Student Services Program at Auroria in Denver, Colorado is looking for an out ace person to help facilitate a discussion of asexuality on their campus. If you think you might be interested, know of someone who might be, or would like more information, please contact us at aven.pt@gmail.com.

As always, if anyone can help out or help spread the word it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

“I work as a programming assistant for GLBT Student Service  on the Auraria campus in Denver, CO. Each week we have a different discussion topic for students, faculty and staff of the campus to talk about. Several of our students have expressed interest in having a discussion group on asexuality, including some who may be questioning whether or not they are asexual themselves. As the facilitator for the group, I promised that I would contact AVEN and see if someone from your organziation would be interested in leading that discussion. It is very important to myself and my colleagues that any discussions we have around an identity are inclusive of members of those groups. My concern with this particular topic is that I do not want to ask anyone to out themselves in order to be present at the discussion. For this reason, I am reaching out to AVEN to see if maybe you had a speakers group, or members who may be already out and interested in helping with this discussion. Some people on our campus were able to see the film Asexual at Creating Change in Baltimore. We would like to see the asexual identity more widely represented on our campus and for education around asexuality to be more readily available. It is our hope that this discussion will help begin turning the wheels for that goal to be met. Our group meets Mondays at 4:00. Please let me know if you all need any more information. 

Thank you,

Megan Fowler”

A compilation of major asexuality related events occuring both on- and off-AVEN.

Many thanks to Cicero for putting these together!

Site News:

Doppel has been appointed as AVEN’s new Tech Admin.

Submissions are now being accepted for the May/June issue of the AVENues newsletter.

Research and Visibility:

Sociologist Mark Carrigan and AVEN Project Team member michaeld were interviewed on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour last week.

A researcher at Northern Illinois University has launched a survey looking at relationships and coming out, as experienced by asexuals.

A researcher for the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper would like to interview asexuals.

There has also been a variety of other media requests sent to the Project Team recently, including Clarin newspaper in Argentina, Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, Psychologies magazine in Spain, the Bangkok Post of Thailand and various UK requests.

AVENite Flora was the resident asexual on a university sexuality panelrecently.

Asexuality has made it into the Montreal Mirror.

As well as a brief mention on the Loose Women show in the UK.

And finally…a letter from the Guardian newspaper’s problem page.

Community:

The first of a new type of ‘Alternative Meet’ (focussing on different activities or hobbies) takes place in Birmingham (UK) on Saturday 10th March.

For UK AVENites after a more traditional meet, one will be taking place in Manchester, also on Saturday 10th.

from Asexual Awareness Week:

Please share with your contacts in Southern Indiana!
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CALLING ALL ASEXUALS & ALLIES!

Do you want to help increase asexual visibility in Southern Indiana? Regina Wright, a gender studies doctoral student at Indiana University Bloomington, is working to form an asexual activist, support, and social group in Bloomington, Indiana. This will be an age-diverse group that welcomes all asexual people and allies. If you have any questions and/or are interested in being involved in the creation of this group, please e-mail Regina at wrightrm@indiana.edu.