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= International Asexuality Day =

Creation
Yasmin Benoit is an asexual activist from the UK who was one of the cofounders of International Asexuality Day (IAD). When asked about the motivation for IAD, Benoit reported that, “the inspiration to create International Asexuality Day came from the lack of visibility that we receive in the first half of the year… I thought it was important that we had something that united and highlighted asexual communities across the world on a date that works for everyone,” (Lea).

AVEN stands for the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. It was founded in 2001 by David Jay with the goals of expanding public knowledge and acceptance of asexuality, and fostering a growing ace community. As of October 2022, there are over 140,000 members. AVEN worked with Benoit and other activists to create IAD as a way of furthering their goals of asexual visibility (Dore).

Four Themes
The underlying meaning of International Asexuality Day consists of four themes: advocacy, celebration, education, and solidarity. (1) Because asexuality is an umbrella term, those participating in IAD aim to highlight to spectrum of identities within the sexuality, such as demisexual, fraysexual, cupiosexual, graysexual, lithosexual, aegosexual, abrosexual, and apothisexual. Additionally, similar to celebrations for those within the LGBTQ community, International Asexuality Day aims to recognize and reaffirm an identity, specifically those who identify within the asexual spectrum.

The creators of IAD also wish to educate others about asexuality, specifically in non-Western and/or non-English speaking countries.” (2) There is also a lack of understanding regarding the types of attraction and how that attraction is expressed, all which are highlighted as a part of International Asexuality Day in hopes to inform the wider population of these unique experiences.

Lastly, a prominent theme amongst IAD celebrants is solidarity, or creating a sense of community amongst ace individuals. IAD aims to tackle discrimination amongst asexual people and validate their struggles against prejudice. (3) International Asexuality Day is, in sum, a way to show support for ace individuals and their experience within a heteronormative society.

Traditions
Every year on April 6th, people around the world spread awareness surrounding the ace community and celebrate International Asexuality Day (Hall). 2021 was the first year that officially recognized this day. The power of social media has allowed people to feel a sense of belonging and connect with the ace community. Although people in the LGBTQ+ community have created traditions, parades, and support for one another, the asexual community is a small fraction of the entire LGBTQ+ community. (Paley)

List of International Supporters
Listed below are the countries in which there are organizations involved in International Asexuality Day. They represent every inhabited continent*. That does not necessarily mean that the governments of these countries recognize International Asexuality day.

This list is taken from the International Asexuality Website:

Arab world

Argentina

Australia

Austria

Bangladesh

Belgium

Brazil

Catalonia

Chile

Colombia

Costa Rica

Czech Republic

Denmark

Dominican Republic

El Salvador

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

India

Indonesia

Italy

Japan

Mexico

Nepal

Poland

Russia

Spain

Sweden

Thailand

The Netherlands

Turkey

UK

USA

Vietnam