Mod Hat On

[batshua]

*breathes

Comments

[chanel_5]

I wrote to PittsburghpPride.org and asked them whether Asexuals have a place in their parade. Their response:

"Hi Chanel
We welcome anyone and everyone to participate in the Pride March. Pittsburg Pride is a time to celebrate who you are. I truly hope that you will join us!
Chris"

[ladypoetess]

Excellent! :D

[melonary]

i think people mentioned in the other thread that some groups are going to be open to asexuals with straight and cis privilege, and some aren't. i'm not even really against them marching in pride with permission from the organizers (although that doesn't mean everyone will be, lgbtqi people aren't a monolith) but i understand why some disagree

[chanel_5]

I totally agree with you in nearly every respect Melonary. The question about whether Asexuals are queer is obviously a much more controversial one then I'd ever imagined. I do believe that every one is entitled to have their own safe places. I suppose I feel like this forum is a part of my own safe space, which is why I was more vocal than usual.

Anyway, despite being involved in this debate, I feel a bit hypocritical because I won't be attending the Parade in any case, due to distance.

[kegom]

Hey, thank you for being a great mod! (Seriously, you're so fast! I know comms where this might have gone on for days.)

I'm sincerely sorry for having been (involuntarily, I can assure you!) been the cause of some of the nastier comments in the last post. :(

[swankivy]

Thanks. I'm not weighing in on those other threads, but it is kind of peculiar to me that "how dare you invade OUR spaces" is the main takeaway message of some of the comments--combined with "go get your own spaces!"--and yet . . . this is happening in one of our spaces. Even if we do get our own spaces, people still come into them to engage with us (and not always in a nice way), so I have a hard time feeling that the call for respect is sincerely meant if people claiming "you make our space unsafe!" don't mean to respect ours.

[makeme_moo]

Sometimes there's overlap. The initial commenter who took issue with the first post, iirc, said they themselves were exploring an asexual identity and was actively discussing the issue before it was reposted anywhere, while I myself (tho I'm straight) have been a member here for several years. Sure, other posters from elsewhere chimed in afterward, but it is not as if ~outsiders started the debate, nor were they the only ones being incredibly disrespectful.

[swankivy]

Oh, of course there's overlap. But what I'm saying is that if there's a "you don't belong in the pride parade or in our spaces" dialogue going on in order to justify "get out of our space and get your own," it seems odd that that would go down in one of the few places we DO have our own "for asexuals" space (which non-asexual people who were not entering the space to ally with us came uninvited). In short, if "you're only welcome if you're coming as allies and playing by our rules" is some of these folks' point, it's a little ironic that they've said so in a place they are not coming as allies and not playing by our rules. (I didn't say anything about who started the debate and did not suggest only one group/person was being disrespectful.)

[randombastary]

This is exactly what I was going to day.

[ladypoetess]

Thank you for being a good mod, batshua.

[lirael1]

I HEART BATSHUA LIKE WHOA.