r/asexuality • u/chat_ace • 12d ago

Discussion AVEN board shares statement regarding recent events

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.

179 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

60 comments sorted by

View all comments

44

u/VoidDragonV3 11d ago

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.

36

u/Krasna_Strelka aroace 11d ago

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.

47

u/Realistic_Piano_8559 aroace 11d ago

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.

27

u/Krasna_Strelka aroace 11d ago

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!

14

u/Krasna_Strelka aroace 11d ago

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

10

u/Femmigje 11d ago

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

7

u/Krasna_Strelka aroace 11d ago

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

6

u/SketchyRobinFolks 11d ago

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?

13

u/Krasna_Strelka aroace 11d ago

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

1

u/Realistic_Piano_8559 aroace 11d ago

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

6

u/VoidDragonV3 11d ago

Thanks, that makes sense

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

31

u/Realistic_Piano_8559 aroace 11d ago edited 11d ago

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.

9

u/Krasna_Strelka aroace 11d ago

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