February is a special month, as it includes Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week! We’ll leave the server open from Sunday, February 20 at 9am Eastern to noon Eastern Friday, February 25, with a break in between to recharge as mods before the regular October TAAAP Pride Chats on February 26 – February 27.
Continue reading “February ’22 TAAAP Pride Chats – ASAW and Crafts/Creativity”January ’22 TAAAP Pride Chats – Gray Aspecs
The ace and aro communities are made up of spectrums, of people who identify with many different labels all within the overall umbrella of aspec! So this month we’re focusing on and celebrating the experiences and identities of gray aspecs! If you don’t identify as gray, you are of course more than willing to come and learn about/ask questions about gray aro and ace people, as well as hang out in the other open channels!
Continue reading “January ’22 TAAAP Pride Chats – Gray Aspecs”Feedback to WPATH Standards of Care
WPATH, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, is a non-profit organization that creates and maintains Standards of Care that help dictate how health providers, institutions, and insurance plans all over the world provide health care to transgender and gender diverse individuals. It is also used by trans people, their support systems, and other institutions to better understand how to best support trans individuals.
From time to time, WPATH revises its Standards of Care and requests input from interested parties. WPATH is currently accepting such feedback on the latest proposed changes at https://www.wpath.org/soc8 with a deadline of January 16th, 2022 at 11:59pm GMT. There are many unjust, regressive, and harmful proposed elements that need to be pushed back against, and this is the chance to do that.
Continue reading “Feedback to WPATH Standards of Care”TAAAP Year in Review – 2021
TAAAP did a lot in 2021, and we can’t wait to see what comes next!
Continue reading “TAAAP Year in Review – 2021”Creating Change 2021 – Social Media Activism
Developed by members of TAAAP for Creating Change 2021. This session explored the use of social media platforms for activism and how to be more strategic with your activist social media posts with guidance from a presenter who has professional experience creating social media campaigns, including a proposal for an official Asexual Flag emoji as a case study.
This presentation has been adapted so that it can be used by others. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License (plain text | legal text). If you would like to use this in a presentation where you are being paid to present or some other use outside the scope of this license, please contact us at [email protected] to ask for permission. It may not be presented at the Creating Change conference without permission.
Aro-Spectrum Awareness Week Proclamation – 2022
Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week begins on February 20th, 2022, but the work for it begins now! In 2021, for the first time, six places in the United States recognized ASAW: DC, Colorado, Michigan, Washington, Virginia, and Minnesota!
We can keep this momentum going – the process for requesting your state to recognize ASAW is fairly simple, and we at TAAAP are here to make it even easier, including a template for submission as well as details on how to submit in every state in the links at the bottom of this page. Submitting a proclamation request to your governor or mayor is a 5 step process:
Continue reading “Aro-Spectrum Awareness Week Proclamation – 2022”Our Book is Being Published!
As some of you may know, we at The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project have been working on writing a book about asexuality and aromanticism for some years now. We are happy to confirm that our book will be published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. They also published Rebecca Burgess’s How to Be Ace and will be publishing the upcoming untitled books by Sounds Fake But Okay as well as TAAAP’s own Elle Rose and Cody Daigle-Orians!
TAAAP’s book will be a deep dive into the process of discovering and embracing an ace or aro identity, including quotes we’ve collected from hundreds of people about their own personal journeys. It will be a resource for anyone who is on the aromantic or asexual spectrums, plus anyone who knows or works with aro or ace people.
It will include:
- Advice for getting yourself or others through some of the struggles that we face
- Perspectives on the different ways that being asexual or aromantic can impact your life
- Illustrative examples from the lives of real aro and ace people.
We are very excited, and can’t wait to share it with all of you (probably in 2023)!
December ’21 TAAAP Pride Chats – Discovering Aspec Identities
As we get ready for a new year, let’s think more about our beginnings! The theme for December’s TAAAP Pride Chat is How you discovered your aspec identity. This can be anything from learning about the identities in the first place, to the journey of self-discovery that many of us are still on; after all, many people don’t just discover one aspec identity but continue to redefine themselves over time. It can also be a good time to discuss any doubts or roadblocks in coming to terms with your identity.
Continue reading “December ’21 TAAAP Pride Chats – Discovering Aspec Identities”YALSA Ace and Aro Teens Presentation 2021
This presentation was developed by Sam Helmick, Elizabeth Graham, and members of TAAAP for the Young Adult Library Services Symposium 2021. The theme of YALSA 2021 was “Biggest Little Safe Spaces: Serving Teens During Times of Adversity”. This presentation was titled “Safe Spaces for Aros and Aces” and discussed the basics of aromanticism and asexuality, provided resources on the identities, and gave advice on how to best create safe spaces for aro and ace youth.
This presentation may not be used without contacting Sam Helmick, Elizabeth Graham, and The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project. For more, please see the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License (plain text | legal text).
Many of the topics here are covered more thoroughly in our other presentations, available here. The Including Youth presentation is particularly relevant.
There are also a number of recommendations of books, both for adults and teens. To check those books out, visit our Bookshop.org page!
Below are links to the Powerpoint presentation and the full PDF – both have all of the speaker notes and the image description for each slide, and should be fully accessible. If they are not, please contact us!
First Nations and Indigenous Ace and Aro Perspectives
November is Native American Heritage Month, and November 26 is Native American Heritage Day this year in the United States. With that in mind, we decided to focus on the voices of First Nations and Indigenous ace and aro individuals, to show the wide variety of experiences that exist among the many different nations and cultures represented here. Thank you so much to all our contributors!
Continue reading “First Nations and Indigenous Ace and Aro Perspectives”