Yea see, the problem is, with all the talk of “we accept lgbt aces and aros!!!” and “we only exclude cishet aces and aros!!!” is you can’t really do either.
I’m a bi trans aro. For my mental health and for my personal feeling of safety, I need somewhere to talk about and get support for ALL of my orientations. I need community that understands the intersection of all my identities. I need to be able to turn to people who are willing to help with my trans issues, my bi issues, and my aromantic issues.
If I am part of a community that actively says “we don’t have space for an a-spec community,” I am being excluded. My needs, and those of all the others like me, are being sacrificed in order to keep out (the actual minority of us) “cishet” aces and aros.
If I am part of a community that insists my identity is “just a modifier,” my orientation is being invalidated. If I am part of a community that says “aros face no real problems,” I am not going to receive the support I need. If I am part of a community that says first that “a-spec identities are all mental illnesses,” then say that my mental illness is not “allowed” to affect my other identities, I am not safe. If I am part of a community that generalizes “all aces and aros” as bad, and forcefully labels all aces and aros as “cishet” I will never have equal respect as anyone else.
If I get told my aromanticism makes me inherently abusive and that my being aro inherently sexualizes everyone else, I will never be accepted into the community.
Please explain how I am welcome at all in the LGBT, as a bi trans aro. Please explain to me how this is supposed to “not target” people like me, but “just the cishets.”
Explain to me how I wouldn’t be treated like a second class member if I am treated like one of my orientations is an embarrassment and that I don’t deserve any support or community for it.
Cause either you’re that damn ignorant, or you’re lying our your asses as you knowingly and forcefully remove LGBT people from the only community they have.
