Asexuality is a term used by people who have a lack of sexual attraction to others, or the low desire for sexual activity. This is different from abstention from sexual activity and celibacy, which are behaviors individuals may do due to factors such as religious beliefs.
However, some asexual individuals may engage with sexual activities, despite not feeling the sexual attraction or desire for sex. They may do sexual things for a variety of reasons, such as, the desire to please their partner sexually or to pleasure themselves or partner.
The flag was created in 2010 by a member of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network as part of a contest during the same year (but for simplicity sake, I’ll be using the shorthand version, AVEN). Since its creation, it has been used officially used in various LGBTQIA+ spaces, as well as the popular social media site Tumblr. The AVEN logo is a triangle fading from white to black, which symbolizes the asexual spectrum (gray-asexuals, demisexuals, and asexuals).
AVEN was founded by American asexual activist David Jay in 2001, and the organization focuses on issues surrounding the asexual community. Its goals are to, “creating public acceptance and discussion of asexuality and facilitating the growth of an asexual community.”
The asexual flag has four horizontal stripes; black, grey, white, and purple from top to bottom. The black represents asexuality, the grey area represents the grey area between asexuality and sexuality (gray-asexual / demisexual), the white stripe sexuality, and the purple stripe represents community.
