I checked a box the other day. It was one I was both pleased to see and one that had taken me years to acknowledge. The box was next to this word: asexual. It was under the question about sexual orientation on a mundane university survey. It’s gratifying to see the university even aware of the orientation. Many adults still think the A in LBGTA stands for allies. (Sorry guys, A is for Asexual.) Young adults these days are way more aware of aces and much more like to openly identify as asexual and/or one of the orientations under the ace spectrum. (But I won’t get into those.) In fact, a couple of years ago, I was having a drink with a friend from high school, whom I hadn’t seen since college, when she told me that her son had texted her from college that he was asexual. She laughed it off, kind of in a condescending “kids these days” tone. College was for experimenting, she concluded, and he’d grow out of it. At first I was silent, but finally I said was something like: at least kids today have a word for it. She gave me an odd look and quickly changed the subject.
Continue reading “Checking the boxes.”
