Originally posted on December 10, 2014.
My intelligent, lovely, in-all-ways-phenomenal 18-year-old daughter just came out to me: as asexual! I am struggling with my reaction to this. If she had said she was a lesbian, I would have been fine with it, except for all that discrimination and stuff. I will always support her, but I can't help but think that (1) something bad happened to her that (despite my near-helicopter parenting) I don't know about, and/or (2) she'll miss out! Is asexuality really a thing? Can it be some sort of opt-out-of-this-sex-stuff-until-later thing? 'Cause that I get.
Parenting Asexual Undergrad Since Evening
My response after the jump...
Asexuality is a real thing, PAUSE, and your daughter could be an intelligent and phenomenal example. That said... for some, asexuality has functioned as an opt-out-of-this-sex-stuff-until-later thing. But just as some gay men identifying as bisexual before coming out as gay doesn't mean bisexuality is a phase (or nonexistent), the fact that some people identify as asexual before ultimately coming out as—here we go—heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, graysexual, demisexual, autosexual, antisexual, hyposexual, etc., etc., etc. isn't proof that asexuality isn't a real thing.
Keep listening to your daughter, PAUSE, and learn more about asexuality at the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network (asexuality.org).
