This past pride was so absolutely rejuvenating for me personally, as an ace person. This year was the first time we (the local aro-ace org) marched in our city's main parade, to all the cheers and waves and bubbles that entails. We've had a booth for years, but this time we got to be at a more central location than usual.
I couldn't help but feel a distinct shift in the interactions we had. In past years there were a lot of very baseline questions-- what is this? i've never heard of it-- and don't get me wrong, that still happened. And no shame in it, either! People can't know what they don't know. But there was way more people, from bright-eyed teens to older adults coming out for the first time, going oh we have a booth! People snagging coloured pins or stickers for their friend, or their partner, or their sibling; one person cried seeing all the stuff we had.
When I first started manning our pride booths 6ish years ago, we had maybe ~3 informational zines; the number doubled. Many of our stacks ran out. Plus, we practically an entire SHELF of books about a-spec identity and amatanormativity, and people would take pictures and jot the titles down. We have a literary body!
Obviously, this is just a snapshot, a narrow view. But I want to say to my aro-ace siblings-- especially those ones who are still nursing the scars from the exclusion campaigns from the last decade-- things are changing. Things are healing. It might be slow, and it might not be linear, but progress is happening.
