Asexual Meaning as First International Asexuality Day Celebrated Around the World

The inaugural International Asexuality Day takes place on April 6, 2021, and is designed to celebrate asexuality and the work of advocates around the world.

IAD is the result of a coordinated collaboration between various international groups from more than 20 countries, and is open to all. The annual event is championing four themes this year; advocacy, celebration, education and solidarity.

The focal point is countries not within the Anglosphere, and sits alongside other events, such as Ace Week, formerly Asexual Awareness Week founded in 2010, which takes place from October 24—30 this year.

Explaining the terminology, aceweek.org says: "Our community uses the word ace to encompass anyone who fits within the spectrum of asexuality."

Numerous IAD events are taking place across the globe with podcasts, live streams, meetings and art contests centred around this year's themes.

Official Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube channels have been set up, with the hashtag #InternationalAsexualityDay used in tweets. The hashtag has seen people from all over the world share artwork, stories, photos and poems.

The YouTube channel has uploaded a number of "ace stories," as well as explainers in various languages including French, Spanish, Dutch and Nepali.

Website International Asexuality Day says: "Participation could be as simple as sharing a post on social media, but there are also organisations all over the world who are holding events, running campaigns and supporting causes."

An IAD infographic explains the day celebrates "the full asexual spectrum", including graysexual, demisexual and asexual.

A YouTube clip on the official channel went into further detail about the terms, explaining demisexuality as a person who: "May experience sexual attraction but only if a strong emotional bond already exists (but that bond is no guarantee of sexual attraction)."

Graysexual, sometimes referred to as Gray-asexual or Gray-A is someone who: "Does not usually feel sexual attraction but the 'asexual' label doesn't quite feel like it fits. The 'grey area.' This might cover many different experiences and each person's identity as Grey-A is valid."

While they defined asexuality as: "Asexuals experience no (or very little) sexual attraction. Being asexual has nothing to do with whether a person has sex, or how much or who with, because every person is different.

"All the word 'asexual' can you tell you about someone is that they don't experience sexual attraction."

The term "ace umbrella" or "ace spectrum" is used to encompass these identities, and others which fit under it.

The inaugural event, selected by a committee so as not to clash with other significant dates, will be reviewed after the first year and could potentially change in the future.