the Discourse™

LGBT ppl: (some of whom are ace themselves) Cisgender heteroromantic asexuals and cisgender aromantic heterosexuals are straight IN ADDITION TO being asexual or aromantic and thus not queer/LGBT. They shouldn’t use the q slur nor should they take advantage of the resources our community provides.

Asexual/Aromantic people do in fact face stigma/prejudice that is unique to them but the LGBT community was built is a coalition of communities brought together by overlaping oppression that is completely separate from what asexuals/aromantic face and have faced historically. Instead of invading safe spaces that keep LGBT people alive, they should focus their efforts on making their own community and providing resources for themselves.

Ace tumblr (after having a collective conniption fit): LOOK AT THESE ACEPHOBES!!1!1#!1 And then…

Joke about bringing [guns to pride parades]

Say [this homophobic crap] related to the orlando shooting

Claim [it’s a privilege] to even have night clubs

Compare ace discourse [to a homophobic mass shooting]

Say they are glad [a few more aphobic gays are dead]

Claim the shooters actions [weren’t driven by homophobia] on the basis that asexual people MIGHT have been present at the club

[Make a list] of “aphobes” (LGBT people) the same day as the Orlando shooting

Say we should [thank aces for donating blood] in light of news that LGBT people can’t donate to help their sibilings

Say they’re glad that the events of the shooting are [weeding out “aphobes”]

[“At least you all have nightclubs”]

[“We’ll see how their gatekeeping stands up after a couple of more massacres”]

[“Gayer than thou”]

[Mock] the AIDS crisis

Say [this] blatant serophobic bull

Say more [serophobic nonsense]

Once again say something [disgustingly serophobic]

Even [more serophobia]

Insinuate “allosexuals” [get cancer from sex]

Compare [gay people to Ronald Reagan] for not wanting cishets in the LGBT community

Demand LGBT people [”help” them make their own community] (because we need to extend our emotional labor to cishets)

Say [this] ahistoric nonsense

Say [this] ableist crap

Outright say they [hate lesbians]

Say all the shit [in these screenshots]

Make this [victim blaming post]

Express desire to [“kill al lallosexuals”]

Claim “allosexuals” have been [raping them for centuries]

Claim rape is [less unpleasant for allos]

Demonise allosexuals and hypersexual people [once again]

Claim asexuals were [victims of the holocaust]

Compare “acephobia” [to the holocaust]

[Deny the inherit antisemitism] with one of the community’s symbols

Even more [denial and antisemitism]

Deny that being [disgusted by lesbians is lesbophobic] all while reducing them to sexual beings

Same person as above, says they want “aphobes” [to shoot themselves], [doesn’t care] that they said they want LGBT people to commit mass suicide and then goes on to insinuate that all LGBT people [deserve the treatment] for hate aro/ace people

Claim [“ace gays don’t exist while being lesbophobic”]

Write fanfiction [demeaning LGBT people]

Say this [homophobic] [revolting] crap

Want to coin terms [to further alienate LGBT] people and claim we’re oppressing them

[Make fun of] the societal oppression LGBT people faced

Say that all [ace people are bi] 

Claim cishet people [aren’t cishet]

Claim lesbians are [predatory towards asexuals]

Insinuate cishet aces are [more oppressed than lesbians]

Say SGA (same/similar gender attraction) is [“compulsory homosexuality”]

Lowkey say they’re [more deserving] of being in the community than closeted LGBT people

Claim they’re even [more queer than LGBT people] and use slurs to refer to us

Fucking [call themselves fags] and then claim that [straight people can reclaim the slur]

Same person above (who is a ace non-sga “bi” person in a straight relationship) [justifies ace tumblr sending rape and death threats] to a rape survivor for saying that cishet aces are not queer

Say this [homophobic shit]

Claim that calling people straight [is homophobic]

Blatantly say they want to [kill “aphobes”]

Blatantly say they want to [kill all allosexuals]

Blatantly say they want LGBT people to [kill ourselves]

Blatantly say that [gay people suck]

Compare using the ace pride flag [to cultural appropriation]

Compare “aphobes” (many of whom are trans) [to fucking TWERFs]

Compare [lesbians to TWERFS]

Call LGBT people to [”queer truscum”]

Call LGBT people [“sex-crazed psychos”]

Call LGBT people [”trashcan queers”]

Call LGBT people [“deviants”]

Call LGBT people [“deviants”] again

Call LGBT people [“weak”] because we experience sexual attraction

Call LGBT people “fascists”

Say thay have no problem with LGBT people [committing suicide]

Claim we, a bunch of “shitty cocksuckers” are upset that 1% of the population [doesn’t want to fuck us]

Call the LGBT community [a stupid gay pride club]

Call the LGBT community a [fandom]

Call the LGBT community [“full of drugs, STDs and alcoholics”]

Claim they can reclaim [homophobic and transphobic slurs]

Claim sex ed is a means to get people to [stop IDing as asexual]

Claim the ace community is cleaner because they don’t have a [“drug and alcohol problem”]

Deny [queer is a slur]

Spew [this vitriol]

[Misgender] the person who popularised the term allosexual in the first place 

Celebrate [someone’s death] and when called out [deflected] the issue [while calling her “toxic”]

The above person calls the deceased and her girlfriend [manipulative and violent]

And then called a lesbian woman a violent slur [only to demonise her] for being rightfully upset

Call all alloromantic allosexual people straight 

Coin homophobic shit like [”alloculture”]

Claim that “allosexuals” purposely [stay in abusive relationships]

Claim that “allosexuals” are [unfaithful in relationships]

Say that LGBT who are survivors of corrective rape don’t care about rape survivors when they criticise ace people for constantly bringing it up

Say [it’s a privilege] to be hypervisible in countries where being LGBT is illegal and punishable by death

And then claiming that if it’s so bad [we should just move]

Claim they’re [more oppressed than bi people]

Compare “aphobes” (i.e. people who think that cishets aren’t LGBT) to [the fucking KKK]

Compare “aphobes” to [the crackers who committed genocide] against America’s Indigenous population with smallpox blankets

Say this [antiblack nonsense] calling for the ace community (a cesspool of saltines and mayo) to be the “aroace MLK”

Say that LGBT ppl are [more likely to be rapists]

Think that [this] is the appropriate way to respond to a poz gay man talking about his experiences

Put trans women and trans minors [on the same list as TWERFS and radfems]

And then justify the above by [calling trans minors abusive]

Show how [antisemtic] they are

Literally use [someone dying] to further their disgusting rhetoric

BLATANTLY say they hate LGBT people

Express desire [to assault] against LGBT ppl

[Express disdain] with the fact that same-gender marriage is legal throughout the entire U.S. 

Deny that they are [invading LGBT safe spaces irl]

Outright say they find LGBP expressing affection publicly (e.g holding hands) disgusting and repulsive

And so much more…

LGBT ppl: Wow fuck these people -spam tags with easily blockable posts-

You: This makes me suicidal!!!

If being told to stay in your fucking lane makes you suicidal, then you have a grandiose sense of entitlement that you need to work on. Instead of sending guilt-tripping, manipulative asks about killing yourself to someone, why not LISTEN to what LGBT people are saying. LGBT aces are still LGBT and thus have a place in the community. It’s cishet aces and aros that don’t. 

Below is a list of specifically aphobic dogwhistles that I’ll update as I spot them or if you guys suggest them:

Ace History Day! Please click the links if you want to more clearly see the posts.

Time to Learn about The History of “The A” and AVEN’s Response to that:

On May 11th 2003, AVEN User whirlygirl suggested “hi group, if we could add an ‘A’ to the end of the LGBT, we could help add ourselves to the list minority groups.” Implying at that point in history (over a decade after LGBT as an acronym came into existence), there was no “A for Aro/Ace”

3 Hours Later, David Jay brags about how at his school, he got the A included and in a really “cool” way!! He put f*g in the acronym, with “asexual” (not aro) as the A! He also included BDSM in the community, just cause. What a cool dude.

Hours later during the morning of the next day, AVEN User VivreEstEsperer, Kate, tells him, hey, the a is already for allies, isn’t that confusing. This comment implies that, wow, the A really WAS for allies before this mess. Strange?? Almost… as if there’s a long history of allies being in the acronym.

Over 12 hours later, David Jay acknowledges the importance of Allies but says they don’t go under the A! Allies are Q for Queer because allies ~queer heteronormativity.

Days later, Kate is confused. “ What do you mean, out to mess with heteronormativity? I know what the term means but Im confused as to what you mean by it, in this context. You’re, and most of us on this board, an ally yourself… you’re not gay but still ally yourself with the “gay cause” and such, its the next best thing to having an asexual movement and all. So how can you say you dont exist? did you mean by that statement that all allies are not heterosexual? cus that certainly wouldnt be true. *confused* Kate”

David Jay does not reply to her pointing out that David Jay is just an ally. Awkward. Time passes, even more ace folk chime in on the then growing debate and admit, “The A is for Ally, the LGBT community doesn’t even know we exist. Just change the acronym to GRSM or Mogai.”

Over a Decade after the original thread, in 2015, GLAAD launches the twitter campaign #GotYourBack saying “A is for Allies,” encouraging allies to actually support LGBT folk. Ironically enough, it calls out people uncomfortable with LGBT PDA and asks them to do something about it. AVEN responds in horror and starts the #GiveItBack campaign, a controversial move not everyone agreed with. GLAAD gave in after a couple days of harassment and issued a statement, which AVEN commented on. Everyone there is convinced that the A has always been for Asexual. Only now it’s not just Asexual, it’s also for Aromantic and Agender too.

What a leap ten years can do! It progressed so much they accused an LGBT community of STEALING the A and making it about Allies. Amazing!!

Started from recognizing that The A is for Ally, now we’re acting like that never happened.

Never forget that David Jay and the Ace community once acknowledged that the A is for Allies but decided, a decade later, to act like the A was stolen from.

everyone immediately:

ok no but real talk? im aroace, i don’t like the idea of porn or anything, but if pornhub actually acquires tumblr i’ll have more hope for this dysfunctional dumpster fire of a website than i do now. this is the porn video platform that has a wholesome dude that just makes content where he gives the viewer a glass of water, or walks them home, or helps clean up, and they sent him a jacket usually reserved for content creators who reach a certain subscriber milestone, as an expression of appreciation. this is the porn video platform that got a bunch of snowplows out on the streets when a city’s own weren’t able to keep up. this is the porn video platform that started a bee-themed channel to bring attention to the whole “bees dying off way faster than is healthy” thing.

Since its founding in 2007, Tumblr has always been a place for wide open, creative self-expression at the heart of community and culture. To borrow from our founder David Karp, we’re proud to have inspired a generation of artists, writers, creators, curators, and crusaders to redefine our culture and to help empower individuality.

Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).  

Let’s first be unequivocal about something that should not be confused with today’s policy change: posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community. We’ve always had and always will have a zero tolerance policy for this type of content. To this end, we continuously invest in the enforcement of this policy, including industry-standard machine monitoring, a growing team of human moderators, and user tools that make it easy to report abuse. We also closely partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, two invaluable organizations at the forefront of protecting our children from abuse, and through these partnerships we report violations of this policy to law enforcement authorities. We can never prevent all bad actors from attempting to abuse our platform, but we make it our highest priority to keep the community as safe as possible.

So what is changing?

Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and we’ve updated our Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.

Why are we doing this?

It is our continued, humble aspiration that Tumblr be a safe place for creative expression, self-discovery, and a deep sense of community. As Tumblr continues to grow and evolve, and our understanding of our impact on our world becomes clearer, we have a responsibility to consider that impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets. We spent considerable time weighing the pros and cons of expression in the community that includes adult content. In doing so, it became clear that without this content we have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.

Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

So what’s next?

Starting December 17, 2018, we will begin enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up from us in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose. All changes won’t happen overnight as something of this complexity takes time.

Another thing, filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but we’ve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.

Most importantly, we’re going to be as transparent as possible with you about the decisions we’re making and resources available to you, including more detailed information, product enhancements, and more content moderators to interface directly with the community and content.

Like you, we love Tumblr and what it’s come to mean for millions of people around the world. Our actions are out of love and hope for our community. We won’t always get this right, especially in the beginning, but we are determined to make your experience a positive one.

I’m actually a somewhat notable blogger in the aro sphere, but because I’m also an otherkin, I don’t necessarily feel comfortable talking about this completely there, as the person I’m known as. 

I’ve noticed that there are a lot of people who doubt that aromantics are actually queer, and even some who doubt that we face oppression. And I think in part that’s because we don’t have a slur to point to. I mean, we experience things that are just as bad, if not worse, as the things that queer allosexuals face, but we don’t really have a slur to point to.

And that’s where my idea comes in. I believe that because, once we’re found out to be aromantic, people usually call us robots or imply that we don’t have feelings, we actually do have a slur to point to.

ARObots. That’s basically what they’re calling us. And because I firmly believe that slurs should be reclaimed, and only by those affected by the slur(queer), I think we should all start to reclaim this slur. 

People who want to believe that they’re “allies” to the aro community should take heed: Don’t you dare fucking use the word arobot. (Unless you’re a robotkin, which I think is a whole different set of oppressions, and also if you are, we should be friends! Hi!). 

To the aro community: in order to make people see that we’re in fact oppressed, I think it’s important that we make it clear that arobot is a slur, and something we’re reclaiming. No one else, (save robotkin) should be allowed to use this term to hurt us. We’re reclaiming it, and people who use it are actively participating in the oppression that keeps us marginalized. They are arophobic.

Basically: Here’s a slur that applies to us, and that people have been throwing around and claiming isn’t a slur, and here’s us reclaiming it and making it clear that anyone who calls us this, who isn’t aro, is in fact an oppressor and has to check their alloromantic privilege.

Used in a sentence:

I’m arobot.

Yo, what’s up my arobot?