As part of our celebrating Asexual Awareness Week, the Trust recently got in touch with the founder and editor editor of the world’s first dedicated ace journal to celebrate a leader in the global ace movement.
The Asexual is an international, free journal published each quarter that includes art, poems, short stories and fiction by asexual- and aromatic- identifying individuals. The most recent edition even included some asexuality-themed knitwear. Today the Asexuality New Zealand Trust’s blog examines its recent achievements.
Michael Paramo, founder and lead editor of The Asexual, is a two-spirit aromantic asexual person, and is a graduate student studying (a)sexuality, gender attraction and intimacy. They founded The Asexual in 2016. Since then, the journal has grown to reach a much larger audience, and has hit a few big milestones over the past year.
“One highlight was publishing the original research work of a university professor in Volume 2, Issue 1, on Asexuality and Sex,” Michael says. This work, written by Brian Fink, PhD, considered asexual community participation, and the communities that asexual people form.
Another highlight over the past year was forming an editorial board of masters and PhD students in the field of (a)sexuality and gender studies. The Asexual also passed 10,000 followers on twitter recently, and enjoys a wide and growing audience.
“More generally,” Michael says, “it’s been amazing to reach out and see so many people on the ace and/or aro spectrums affirmed by The Asexual and the education it brings to non-aces and/or non-aros as well.”
Submissions to the journal are open, and each upcoming issue revolves around a different theme or concept relating to asexuality and aromanticism. Find the most recent edition, Asexuality and Pride, here.
The Asexuality New Zealand Trust has no control over, accepts no responsibility for, and does not necessarily endorse the content of external websites.
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