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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.