The March 2021 TAAAP Pride Chat will focus on platonic attraction and its spectrum, including aplatonicism and its inclusion in the aro and ace communities. Some members of the ace and aro communities find the experience, or non-experience, of platonic attraction to be a defining part of their identities.
Continue reading “March ’21 TAAAP Pride Chats – Platonic Attraction”Creating Change 2021 – Including Youth
Developed by members of TAAAP for Creating Change 2021. This session discussed how youth spaces, including schools, youth groups, and queer activism, are already including aro and ace youth as well as how they still need to grow.
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.
Creating Change 2021 – Race and Aspec Identity
Developed by members of TAAAP for Creating Change 2021. This session discussed how white supremacy, colonialism, and compulsory sexuality impact the ability of racial minorities to claim and find joy in ace and aro identity. It also covered how the aspec community has perpetuated racism and how it can move forward towards inclusion, justice, and healing.
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.
Creating Change 2021 – Amatonormativity and Relationship Anarchy
Developed by members of TAAAP for Creating Change 2021. This session focused on understanding and deconstructing amatonormativity, with a critical examination of monogamy as a patriarchal, sex-negative, capitalist, colonial, coercive institution. It also looked at ways to resist society’s amatonormative expectations in our lives and our communities, such as through relationship anarchy.
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.
February ’21 TAAAP Pride Chats – ASAW and Amatonormativity
This February, we’ll have two Pride Chats – one focusing on Aromantic-Spectrum Awareness Week on February 21-22, and another on amatonormativity, relationship anarchy, and poly-a relationships on February 27-28. As usual, anyone can come to these chats; they are not limited by identity. We will be open from 9:00 am to 11:59 pm Eastern each day we host the chat.
Continue reading “February ’21 TAAAP Pride Chats – ASAW and Amatonormativity”Creating Change 2021
TAAAP is proud to present several sessions at the Creating Change conference for the fourth year in a row, with Aces and Aros and the Aromantic-spectrum Union for Recognition, Education, and Advocacy, including a workshop, caucus, and the first-ever Day-Long Institute! This year, because it will be entirely virtual, nobody has to travel at all to join us. Also, the registration fees this year have been reduced to $50, or pay what you can. You can register here: https://www.thetaskforce.org/creatingchange/register.html. The dates are Friday, January 29-Sunday, January 31.
We plan to upload session materials and transcripts, though only of the informational parts and not of any personal audience information, for many of these sessions after the conference.
January ’21 TAAAP Pride Chats – Hopes and Resolutions
This past year, 2020, has been a difficult year for many of us for many different reasons. The January TAAAP Pride Chat will look to the future to think about hopes and resolutions for 2021. These can be for aro and ace communities at large, or personal. Let’s start out the year thinking positive!
Continue reading “January ’21 TAAAP Pride Chats – Hopes and Resolutions”Aro-Spectrum Awareness Week Proclamation
Aromantic-spectrum Awareness Week begins on February 21st, 2021, but the work for it begins now! As of the end of 2020, 6 states in the US have officially recognized Ace Week (updated to include Virginia), yet no states have recognized ASAW. Luckily, the process for requesting your state to recognize ASAW is fairly simple, and we at TAAAP are here to make it even easier. Submitting a proclamation request to your governor or mayor is a 5 step process:
Continue reading “Aro-Spectrum Awareness Week Proclamation”December TAAAP Pride Chats – Models of Attraction and Orientation
The December TAAAP Pride Chat will focus on models of attraction and orientation, including the SAM (Split-Attraction Model), as well as understandings and models of orientation that do not center attraction, and any other potential ways of understanding attraction and orientation. We at TAAAP support any person using any kind of model, or no model at all, to identify their attraction or orientation. We also will require that all participants in the conversation respect others’ personal choices and feelings surrounding any particular attraction and orientation model or lack thereof, including people who object to there being a binary of SAM and non-SAM. This discussion will explore why people use the SAM, use something else entirely, or use none.
Continue reading “December TAAAP Pride Chats – Models of Attraction and Orientation”Decolonizing TAAAP
Note: This statement has been edited to address the helpful feedback we’ve gotten. This is meant as a statement of TAAAP’s values. Decolonization is a long process that will never be fully completed, but members of TAAAP want to be held accountable for the ways in which we perpetuate and participate in colonial thinking and actions. We welcome further feedback and corrections.
The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project was founded in the United States, and almost all of our members, as well as the people in the communities we serve, reside in the United States or in other colonized countries. Colonialism is violence, and living as a settler in colonized countries means participating in that violence. Even as we fight to bring attention and resources to our underserved and underrepresented identities, it is essential that we respect and acknowledge the rightful caretakers of colonized lands. We must also always remember and acknowledge the history of violence against Indigenous peoples, and the violence still practiced and institutionalized in our societies today. TAAAP is based out of Maryland, which is the traditional home of many Indigenous peoples, including, but not limited to, the Accohannock, Anacostan, Massawomeck, Manahoac, Nentego, Piscataway, Pamunkey, and Susquehannock peoples. (You can check what peoples have claim to which lands at this site: native-land.ca.) Some of these peoples are not listed on this map or acknowledged today, but we know that they still exist and wish to acknowledge them as well. Many of these peoples were driven away, were enslaved, or were killed, whether through violence or disease. Plenty of these peoples survive today. Now, around the world, Indigenous populations are more likely to live in poverty, be disenfranchised by colonial governments, and face violence than almost any other population.
Continue reading “Decolonizing TAAAP”