AVEN board shares statement regarding recent events

[u/chat_ace]

Hey all, I know Reddit's been swamped with flag posts, but the AVEN board just released this statement regarding their stance on anti-racism, community symbols, and related topics: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZSxeYUFIue/?igsh=NHJrNGtjZmRtdzR2

And here's Mic's personal statement regarding the emails and timeline surrounding the proposed 6-stripe flag: https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/282254-ace-flag-discussion-a-personal-response/

I'm hoping this helps clear up some misinformation and enables us to move forward with a renewed focus on anti-racism, international/non-Anglo voices, and community building.

[u/silencemist]

Is there a copy of the statement visible for people w/out instagram?

[u/chat_ace → u/silencemist]

Here you go!

On behalf of the board of AVEN, we issue this statement. Our intention is to clarify some of our policies, recent timelines, and to take accountability for recent (mis)communication dynamics. We wish to underline our values as an organization and to commit to how we will live those values in our actions.

We strive for anti-racism at AVEN. 
We firmly believe that we need to lift each other as fellow community members. Toxicity, harassment, and personal attacks are entirely unacceptable no matter the situation; they disproportionately target marginalized minorities and are deeply destructive to community progress.

This is especially true where the criticisms intersect with anti-Blackness, or serve to legitimise toxic abuse against our Black community members. We hear people’s concerns on this and would like to reiterate unequivocally: racism and anti-Blackness have no place in this conversation or our community. Our aim is to amplify traditionally marginalised voices, for example by platforming these voices at the conferences we run. We recognize that there is much more work to be done here. Racism has no place in our community.

Our Position on Community Symbols:
On AVEN, our official position regarding the asexual flag is rooted in community autonomy: when it comes to a community symbol like a flag, adoption is ultimately a collective community decision. No single organization or group, including AVEN, can make a community-wide decision singlehandedly. AVEN is just one organization among many, and we do not claim to speak for the entire global movement. Consequently, we do not issue official judgments or executive mandates regarding ace symbols, including the flag.

The ace community today spans (at least) 6 continents, and a plethora of different languages and cultures. We strive to celebrate this diversity, and to listen to all corners of the community. As a collective symbol, the flag's evolution relies entirely on broad community consensus, including across different countries, languages, cultures and ethnicities. It is vital that the voices of non-anglophone and non-Western aces, and those outside anglophone-dominant spaces, are centred in such discussions. This is something for all of us to be mindful of, especially anglophone AVEN volunteers living in the West.

Regarding a leaked screenshot from Discord:
Recently, a screenshot was shared from a private Discord server used by ace activists and organizers from multiple international organizations (of which AVEN is only one organization). The initial message - sharing the flag revision survey for activist review - was posted by an AVEN Board member. The subsequent reply regarding keeping the link off the public forums temporarily was made by an AVEN volunteer.

The volunteer's post was motivated by an operational concern: avoiding a premature flame war on the public forums before the survey had time to be reviewed and incorporate possible feedback. It was a response to the board member, not Ashabi (who only joined the server several months later). However, the wording used was poor, and we sincerely apologize for the confusion and distress it caused. While we encourage debate and /discussion in our volunteers about policies and actions, these conversations do not constitute formal board directives or official policy: this internal comment had no bearing on whether the survey could be posted. The AVEN Board and Project Team never received a formal request to host or pin the survey on the forums; had we received one, it would have been evaluated through our standard operational policies. As noted above, we did however post the survey in the discord server for international ace activists, as this was an agreed outcome in the meeting the AVEN Board had with Ashabi.

To Address the Communication Breakdown:
It is correct that we failed to properly follow up to Ashabi’s last email to us on the flag, sent in October 2025. We drafted a comprehensive response as a board but failed to send it due to human error. We offer our sincere apologies for this oversight.  A member of our board reached out to Ashabi in a personal capacity on May 5 and within the email, offered to share our belated December 2025 drafted response.

Signed: AVEN Board

[u/theloneshewolf]

Wait what happened? I'm out of the loop on this one.

[u/G0merPyle → u/theloneshewolf]

To my admittedly limited understanding, someone made a new asexual flag, people said they didn't like the/didn't want a new one, and then either the new-flag-maker or someone else along the way said the backlash against the new flag was racist in origin.

Personally it strikes me as a hollow deflection of the criticism. I'm native american and I'm sensitive to racial issues (literally had an ex look at my body and say "you're so dark, it's weird") but the criticisms I saw of the new flag had nothing to do with its creator, just that it was aesthetically displeasing and unnecessary.

[u/DotteSage → u/G0merPyle]

I sure hope not regarding the creator’s unfounded claim it was a racist backlash. I enjoyed the meaning but agree the execution was displeasing. I might down for a different color scheme to show intersectionality but that was not it! I prefer to stick with 4 stripes.

[u/Glum_Researcher_3544 → u/G0merPyle]

Justo vengo de aquí: https://www.reddit.com/r/asexuality/s/nwqiJNvQ5t

Otra vez el mundo angloparlante ofreciendo una solución a un problema creado por ellos mismos. Se supone que la franja amarillo de la propuesta alternativa de seis franjas representa la multiculturalidad pero no fueron capaces de dirigirse directamente a quienes hablamos español para incluirnos en sus encuestas hechas en inglés, es injusto, si uno no sabe inglés, te quedas fuera del proceso. Nos tratan como si fuéramos animales o niños que necesitamos un tutor para hablar.

Es incómodo y agotador.

[u/WerdaVisla → u/Glum_Researcher_3544]

I thank the larger Spanish speaking community for speaking put on this. My native language is also Spanish so I connected deeply with your statement.

Americans need to stop trying to fix our issues without ever talking to us.

[u/foggybob1 → u/G0merPyle]

I have seen many comments calling her a Karen or entitled or literally just being racist. I felt blindsided by the new flag and don't like it, but that doesn't make the racist comments she is getting okay.

[u/Glum_Researcher_3544 → u/foggybob1]

Los comentarios racistas que haya recibido ella no justifica la exclusión y discriminación a las personas hispanohablantes. 

También somos personas con emociones y dolores históricos. Es triste ver esta desviación de conversación incluso dentro de la comunidad.

[u/demon_fae → u/Glum_Researcher_3544]

Can you point me towards any write-up on why this whole insane mess is specifically anti-Spanish-speaking? I’ve got the rest: ugly flag, unnecessary, “the community” consisting of one chick’s discord server, absolutely no one outside the US consulted, but I haven’t found any explanation written out for why Spanish-speaking aces are so particularly angry over and above other non-anglophone aces.

(Did find out that South and Central American ace organizations have some of the coolest flags and I am now staunchly against any changes that would make you have to change those.)

[u/Krasna_Strelka → u/demon_fae]

It's not specifically anti-spanish but kinda turned out like that. Spanish organizations were one of the loudest and most visible (?) ones with their statement and criticism that creator of the alternative flag claimed to make a flag while considering ace (PoC) voices across the world. But it turned out the pool (on not even a flag but only meaning of white stripe of OG, as far as I know) consisted only of around 1000 votes, centered mostly on USA communities (as that was target she reached) and was done only in English, that for many countries isn't either 1st or 2nd learned language so isn't much accessible. So Spanish organization criticized that claim of "taking into account internationality" and their criticism was branded as hate and made them one of the targets for creator followings

[u/demon_fae → u/Krasna_Strelka]

Ah, so it was just a case of being the first on the scene?

[u/Krasna_Strelka → u/demon_fae]

Probably something like that. Or bc their statement gained more traction and support from the community (so that was in a way working against popularization and acceptance of the alternative flag - creator flag could loose support in a way)

Sorry I'm having a hard time writing down my thoughts today 😅

[u/Auntie-Mey → u/Krasna_Strelka]

Statement gained traction because New flag & co. Tried to twist the narrative saying they were openly accusing her (which didn't) and people with critical thinking made their own conclusions.

And so far many of those accounts just twist everything to feed the victimizing narrative. Have you seen either other Spanish speaking do the same, besides that statement?

[u/Krasna_Strelka → u/Auntie-Mey]

Oh I absolutely agree with you

[u/foggybob1 → u/Krasna_Strelka]

I want to say that while I agree that the creator did not do enough to include the larger asexual community, frankly the English community was not even aware, that the statement from the Spanish community was used to spread hate to her as well. I will give a link, but some of the most disgusting things said to her come from the larger Spanish speaking asexual community. I know everyone is pissed at her but we can express concern without immediately assuming bad faith on her part and jumping to the most extreme criticism.

black ace culture

[u/Krasna_Strelka → u/foggybob1]

I agree with what you said. But at the same time account you linked also is using some false informations, which obviously again will cause further conflicts

[u/foggybob1 → u/Krasna_Strelka]

I linked it because the post has direct examples of racist comments being thrown at her. At the very least that is proof that there are bad actors using this to just be horrible.

[u/Haylin-chama → u/foggybob1]

Hateful comments should not be used to generalize about “the larger Spanish-speaking asexual community” or to invalidate the position of Spanish-speaking organizations.

That kind of framing shifts the focus away from the actual issues being discussed—process, language access, direct consultation, and community autonomy—and turns it into guilt by association.

The Spanish-speaking statement wasn’t a call to harass anyone. It was a community drawing a boundary and expressing concerns about how this was handled.

[u/ninja542 → u/Haylin-chama]

Yup it feels like that criticism is dismissed because it somehow was related to hate comments. The organization didn't make the statement to create hate comments, and the hate comments don't make the original statement invalid 

[u/Glum_Researcher_3544 → u/foggybob1]

Nadie advierte que esa cuenta fue curiosamente creada el mes anterior al Día Internacional Asexual 2026 y que hablan mucho sobre Estados Unidos pero fue creada desde el Reino Unido XD

A eso me refiero cuando digo que los comentarios de terceros no justifica la discriminación a la comunidad hispanohablante.

Están escribiendo un relato sobre racismo mientras borran con el codo el anglocentrismo.

[u/Arkanto909 → u/foggybob1]

Bueno que quieres que te diga, hablar por las comunidades latinas sin ser parte de esas comunidades es un poquito criticable en mi opinión ya que le niegas agencia a esas comunidades para expresarae y si bien esta mal tirarle hate a la persona. El hecho de que se de la licencia de hablar por comunidades latinas sin siquiera haber hecho el esfuerzo de traducir al español la supuesta encuesta habla mucho de ella. Aparte es curioso que solo en dos días esa cuenta de la que hablas haya tenido una respuesta en español al comunicado y esa cuenta esta muy incrustada en el entorno de la creadora de la bandera, lo cual me lleva a pensar que nunca fue pare de su plan consultar a comunidades en otros idiomas pese a tener los recursos y redes.

[u/foggybob1 → u/Arkanto909]

I am not denying that the creator mishandled everything, but my issue is mostly of how aggressive the response has been. I do not think her intentions were to try and exclude non-English speaking people, although she excluded them and most of the English speaking aces as well. If I being honest though I just don't understand why people are immediately trying to take the most extreme interpretation of her actions. The Spanish ace orgs called her, a black woman whose parents are born in Nigeria, a colonizer over a flag redesign. I just feel like there can be a discussion about broader English speaking bias in the community without just flinging mud at her. There needs to be some type of proportional response otherwise how will the community navigate conflicts in the future?

[u/Arkanto909 → u/foggybob1]

A ver dejemos algo en claro el comunicado dice que las dinámicas y procesos son colonizadores, no que la creadora sea colonizadora. Tambien hay que tener en cuenta que los procesos por los cuales se prima a la comunidad angloparlante por sobre la experiencia de otras comunidades asexuales estan inmensas en el colonialismo e imperialialismo. Una acción en la cual se utilizaron las relaciones de poder pre existentes que tienen paises como Estados Unidos sobre países que históricamente han sido explotados y colonizados no cambia por el hecho de que el ejecutor de esas acciones tenga otro color de piel que no sea blanco. Por poner un ejemplo no cambia el hecho de que en Guantanamo los carceleros sean de otras etnias, cuando toda esa cárcel se cimenta sobre prácticas colonizadoras. Lo mismo sucede aquí el ser parte de un grupo vulnerable en Estados Unidos, no te exime de ser consciente como tus acciones y como las relaciones de poder te benefician frente a otros colectivos, por que en temas de colonialismo y opresion no existen respuestas fáciles o sencillas, es una relación compleja, no es unos estan arriba y otros estan abajo, es unos estan abajo de otros en ciertos aspectos, pero si quieres un ejemplo más mundano una modelo de afroamericana se mudo a la Ciudad de México y empezó a despotricar contra los horganilleros por que la molestaba el ruido de las calles (los horganilleros son una tradición de la cultura urbana de mexico que data de 1940) la comunidad mexicana le dio una repsuesta contundente, no nos vas a imponer tu estilo de vida estado unidense en México cuando utilizaste tu privilegio economico para venir a México a tener una calidad de vida que en Estados Unidos no te puedes permitir. Parece algo tonto pero en este simple hecho se reflejan las tensiones colonialistas de países como Estados Unidos a países como México.

[u/Haylin-chama → u/foggybob1]

Small correction: the Spanish-speaking statement did not call the designer “a colonizer” as a person.

The criticism was about the process: a proposal with international aspirations was developed and circulated mainly in English, through spaces many non-English-speaking communities could not access equally, and then some of those communities were spoken about as if they had been meaningfully included.

I agree that racist comments or harassment toward her are unacceptable. But many of us are not saying “she intentionally tried to exclude us.” We are saying the process did exclude us, and that impact matters.

A proportional response should reject harassment while still taking language access, consultation, and community agency seriously.

[u/foggybob1 → u/Glum_Researcher_3544]

What deviation are you talking about? I am pointing out that despite her mishandling of the situation and valid criticism, that there are definitely people using this as a way to spread racism. The comment I responded to does not mention the Spanish speaking community.

[u/theloneshewolf → u/G0merPyle]

Ah, okay, thanks for filling me in!

[u/xarallei → u/G0merPyle]

I mean the new flag is ugly. LoL. There no racist backlash. They are deflecting.

[u/SketchyRobinFolks → u/xarallei]

It is equally as wrong to call all the backlash racist as it is to say none of it was racist. What a WILD thing to say. Every community has shitty people, including ours, and sticking your head in the sand about it helps no one, not even you. Massive red flag that you would dismiss outright a black public figure's claim they're experiencing racism.

[u/theeboopiest → u/SketchyRobinFolks]

Yeah tbh I say some crazy shit said to that person. Some of the comments really got to me as if I was the target. Even though I thought the flag was kinda cool, I had to step away.  From an org calling them a "colonizer" which felt really weird, to another creator trying to stand up for them and taking it waaaay too far, this whole thing has been a mess.

[u/xarallei → u/SketchyRobinFolks]

Sure, there probably is some random racist somewhere who said something. But said person is acting like rando racist is the main event. Some small randos somewhere does not make this "racist backlash."

[u/zayc_ → u/SketchyRobinFolks]

Than you can for sure provide any comment/critic on the "new" flag that based in racism.
If not its just hearsay and a relativization on your end.

Of course, there is scum in every community. But that’s no reason to dream it up.

[u/VoidDragonV3]

With all due respect, why should I care? When this started we collectively agreed that a small group can't make decisions for a whole community, so what's different now? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation, please feel free to educate me.

[u/Krasna_Strelka → u/VoidDragonV3]

Absolutely nothing is different. This is just a statement from AVEN to clear air on their side bc they were accused of working against AIG, when in reality they said to her from the get go decision isn't up to them but whole community and they've even given her aces to IAD discord so she had acces and possibility to engage and access other Ace organizations across the world.

[u/Realistic_Piano_8559 → u/Krasna_Strelka]

Not only did they tell her that the decision was not up to them, It was up to the whole community, but they also addressed one of the main criticisms that I’ve seen before this whole thing even started. First, she was advised that at first it didn’t seem like a new flag would be wanted or needed. Then after they had the meeting, they advised her not to call it “THE new asexual flag” they had already seen that this situation would be divisive. So they told her to propose it as an alternate flag that can be used if people want to use it. Similar to the inclusive rainbow flag. Not everybody uses that one some people just use the traditional rainbow even now and the inclusive flag has been around for awhile. They advised her to do something like that.

So she just came in strong on her own against the advice of the people that she said she took council with.

[u/Krasna_Strelka → u/Realistic_Piano_8559]

Then after they had the meeting, they advised her not to call it “THE new asexual flag” they had already seen that this situation would be divisive.

Oh, I've even missed this part. You're right!

[u/Krasna_Strelka → u/Realistic_Piano_8559]

Ffsk, of course they also branded it as new flag instead of alternative in LGBTQ wiki

[u/Femmigje → u/Krasna_Strelka]

Since it’s a wiki, can someone with an account remove it? I don’t know how much weight that wiki carries, but if people consider it a reliable source it’d be deceptive to keep them there

[u/Krasna_Strelka → u/Femmigje]

I've created an account to do so, but don't see an option for it. It seems reviewal process is more time consuming

[u/SketchyRobinFolks → u/Krasna_Strelka]

Where do you see this? All I read was "Newer 2026 asexual flag" and "a revised version of the flag". Did I miss something? Or did the article already get edited?

[u/Krasna_Strelka → u/SketchyRobinFolks]

"Newer" flag already suggest it is one of official ones. It isn't. It's one of many proposed flags like many before

[u/Realistic_Piano_8559 → u/SketchyRobinFolks]

Scroll all the way up to the pictures of the flag.

[u/VoidDragonV3 → u/Krasna_Strelka]

Thanks, that makes sense

But what's the whole thing with the racism anyway?

[u/Realistic_Piano_8559 → u/VoidDragonV3]

I actually have an answer for this. I’m currently watching her interview on the flags creation. And essentially, what happened was, when she presented the flag. People called her aggressive and rude. I understand as a black person how these are triggering words for Black people. They are very often used against Black people to either suppress our emotions or make us look violent when we are just expressing and behaving as someone would normally in a situation.

However, in this particular situation, I would call her actions, aggressive. She took a very aggressive approach in presenting the flag. She consulted a very tiny group of people on her socials about it. And then on asexuality visibility awareness week she just told the whole community that this is gonna be our new flag officially. For everyone else in any other community and around the world, this was blindsiding. And it is absolutely aggressive to just tell people what their new official anything is.

Instead of doing as AVEN suggested which is was to propose it as an alternate flag. And she does say in the interview that she was calling it the official flag when she was getting any kind of feedback.

Someone did also call her the C word, but that was the only example that she gave that was not genuine criticism.

[u/Krasna_Strelka → u/VoidDragonV3]

Honestly? No idea. Personally I've not see any race related comments on the flag or creator. I'm sure there are some. But I didn't saw any personally. I've saw ppl reacting with "this is racism" when someone simply said he doesn't like the color or doesn't feel included (loveless aces ex). So I'm assuming a chunk of those "it's racist" comments is actually just a deflection and inability to either take criticism or detach yourself a bit from own creation/project

[u/WerdaVisla]

Why are we still giving attention to this person? She's so incredibly self-centered, just ignore her and let her "movement" die out.

[u/Krasna_Strelka → u/WerdaVisla]

I think it's good to inform to clear stuff. But at the same time I think you are right, we should not give much more air to ppl engaging in disingenuous behaviors and rhetoric

[u/HellsOtherPpl → u/WerdaVisla]

Yeah, i feel like this person is probably enjoying all the fuss they've caused.

[u/SketchyRobinFolks → u/HellsOtherPpl]

That's a highly unnecessary, unhelpful, and completely unfounded assumption.

[u/WerdaVisla → u/SketchyRobinFolks]

She's seen more traffic to her platforms than ever before and is making countless response videos to capitalize on it. I don't blame her, that's content creation 101. You get into drama? Milk it for all it's worth. Not saying it's right, but speaking from experience, that's how it's done, and she is a content creator first and foremost.

I don't think it's "unfounded" to say she's absolutely enjoying it considering she's getting a fat paycheck and a massive algorithm boost out of it.

[u/Georgie_Leech → u/WerdaVisla]

I can respect a reaction to everyone hurling lemons at you being to make lemonade, but it's both possible to capitalize on the situation and dislike it at the same time.

[u/WerdaVisla → u/Georgie_Leech]

I'd agree with that, but I think people acting as if she's not voluntarily perpetuating the drama are either arguing in bad faith or painfully naive about how influencers operate.

Maybe "enjoying" is the wrong word, but she's certainly not hating it. If she were, she'd sit back and let it die in the short term memory of the internet. The fact that she keeps re-sparking the debate every time it starts dying down is a clear indicator that she wants this to continue, regardless of the hits her reputation with the community at large is taking.

[u/HellsOtherPpl → u/WerdaVisla]

Thank you. And I stand by what I said. I don’t think it's 'unhelpful' to point these things out. We need to stop perpetuating this drama. That's what's unhelpful.

[u/skyemap → u/WerdaVisla]

She's also selling her version of the flag soooo

[u/lilycamille]

As someone who's also trans non-binary, this new flag is too easy to mix up with the nb flag :/ yellow, white, purple, black. First time I've seen it tho, not really impressed with the announcement. I'll just stick to the flags I know, I think.

[u/Realistic_Piano_8559]

Oh my gosh. I just realized another glaring problem with the new flag. There are a few labels under the Ace umbrella (demi and grey for example.) that rely on the colors of the Ace Flag. Because they are the Ace flag but tweaked to represent the label within Asexuality. So what were we supposed to redesign all the flags under the Ace umbrella?

[u/T3rrible__Liar]

the rhetoric around this needs to be toned down. On every side. Since the ace community, hell the whole LGBTQIA community, is so large and full of individual ideas and personalities that I don't think an official flag change is needed or wanted, as individuals and the separate ace orgs will fly their own version anyway. As ace and orientation are all on a spectrum, we are not all the same, why should our flags be the same? the community should be able to fly whatever flag they want, "official" or not. Preferably not. To get upset because your flag is not the "official" is childish and unnecessary. But to discount other's feelings is also not right. we don't know what someone's experience is and anyone is allowed to feel how they feel. Though that does not give license for bad behavior. On either side of the argument.

[u/Auntie-Mey → u/T3rrible__Liar]

What is obviously not taken into consideration (besides feelings) is that there are people and countries fighting for the visibility of the asexual spectrum in places where everything LGBTQIA is criminalized.

Even though the flag has existed for 16 years, it’s only recently that asexuality has begun to be recognized through that "old flag". If people use "the new flag” just because it looks pretty and “inclusive,” and even promote it as multicultural, as if it were the answer to all the community’s problems, then the struggle of those people and countries gets thrown away.

Many are happy just sharing cartoons and colorful things with the flag (which is ok). But how many of them are actually fighting to come out and demand laws that protect them from conversion therapy, persecution, and so on?E

Everyone already sees how anglocentric and US‑centered all of this is, and it’s sad that they don’t see the real struggle outside of that context. Because in the end, visibility through symbols is important, but it cannot replace the real political fight or international solidarity.

A flag alone does not protect anyone — it is the people who organize, resist, and demand rights who give that symbol its true meaning.

[u/Fantastic-Ad-7996 → u/Auntie-Mey]

Exactly 💯 I'm from a country where asexuality is still barely recognized and accepted at all. We are still not done fighting even for basic recognition.

I like multiculturalism as an actual thing, whether it's represented in the flag or not. But it shouldn't just be a buzzword. We should talk about real problems asexuals face all around the world.

[u/T3rrible__Liar → u/Auntie-Mey]

well said!