AVENues: Spring 2022

AVENUES

JANUARY - MARCH 2022

SPRING 2022

FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE 3 LETTER FROM THE EDITORS 4-14 QUESTIONS OF THE MONTH 15-20 AVEN BEAR: WORLD-TRAVELING AVEN AMBASSADOR ... BY KELLY

21-25

INTERVIEW WITH ANONYMOUS

.... BY JANUS THE FOX

26-29

INTERVIEW WITH SPRIALLINGSNOWY

.... BY JANUS THE FOX

30-32

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES

.... PHYSICAL HEALTH RESOURCES .... MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES: INTERNATIONAL .... MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES: USA .... MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES: UK .... MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES: CANADA .... MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES: AUSTRALIA

33 34 35

F eatured

ARTWORKS BY SINCE WORD SEARCH ACE SPOTLIGHT

in this issue

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

Hello aces!

Welcome! In this issue, we will be looking at the asexual activism around the world!

We will explore the knowledge and visibility of Asexuality in different parts of the world. Through the use of questions, we will explore where in the world our readers are located and what, if any visibility exists in the country or state they’re in. Are people even familiar with Asexuality where you live? Our Kelly shares an AVEN Bear Photo Journal she created while traveling all over the world way back in 2009. We also interview two activists from around the world, for their part in asexual visibility. We finally have two Asexuality related paintings by one of our readers.

I look forward to seeing how AVENues changes in the future. Keep sending in your artwork, creatives, articles, and other items! I know you are in good hands.

A welcome to all that continue to read AVENues

Janus the Fox Editor in Chief

EDITING TEAM EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jan the Fox LAYOUT: rainbowbarfeverywhere CO-EDITORS: kikuka scarletlatitude BENEVOLENT PT OVERLORD: AceMissBehaving

CREATIVE TEAM kelico MichaelTannock ben8884 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS/ARTISTS Since Pragati SPECIAL THANKS TO: Interview: SpirallingSnowy 3

Follow AVENues on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/AVENuesAVEN/ Follow AVEN on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/AVENOfficial/

QUESTIONS OF THE MONTH

This issue explores Asexual Activism around the World. How is Asexuality is known where you are? Is there any visibility in the country you’re living in?

WHAT COUNTRY OR STATE DO YOU LIVE IN? Arizona Mary India Kylie Ireland Anonymous Oregon, United States Anonymous France Anonymous California,USA Anonymous Minnesota Evan New York, USA Kris Texas Cinda Illinois, USA Lori Washington state, US L US -

Q uestions

Jean

of the

M onth

5

United Kingdom Sophie Michigan Kym British Columbia, Canada Anonymous Southland New Zealand Carol Tn -

Amber

Washington State, USA ezra Saudi Arabia Eshk British Columbia, Canada Andrea Andres

HOW WELL KNOWN IS ASEXUALITY IN YOUR STATE OR COUNTRY? It doesn’t seem to be well known in Arizona. No one ever talks about it, and when I tell people I am ace I have to explain what I mean.

Mary Not known at all.

Kylie Not very well.

Anonymous

Q uestions

of the

M onth

6

It’s known to be okay in my country but not well in my state.

Anonymous Not very well known generally, but a little better within the LGBTQ+ community.

Anonymous Not very well known,it’s not included in any talks about sex ed or in any health textbooks I know of.

Anonymous Decently well. My parents know about it.

Evan Pretty well known surprisingly.

Kris Pretty well-known in my experience. The few people I have discussed it with have known what it is, or only needed a brief reminder or explanation.

Cinda The only real things known around here by people outside the queer/trans people are LGBTQ+, hetero, queer, gay, straight and trans. You have to explain what anything else is, but then again I don’t live in a very accepting area.

Lori Still fairly unknown. For example, my hometown of Bellingham is considered to be very LGBTQ+ tolerant, but the local bookstore has a fairly tiny ‘gender and sexuality ’ section, with only one book specifically addressing asexuality.

L Not well known I believe.

Jean Not very well known.

Sophie Not at all.

Kym

Q uestions

of the

M onth

7

Not at all.

Anonymous Don’t know, there are some around.

Carol I’m not sure, but i dont have high hopes as it’s in the bible belt.

Amber Fairly well-known. ezra I find the Younger/Teen generation knows more about it, which I contribute to the power of TikTok. It’s not talked much about or made visible even by PRIDE groups here. And if you’re not already connected to PRIDE groups I had never heard about it until I watched Sex Education. Not sure how to bring awareness past PRIDE groups to help with exposure.

Andrea Andres

HOW IS ASEXUALITY VIEWED IN YOUR STATE OR COUNTRY? Most people I talk to about it aren’t judgmental but seem confused by it, as if they don’t undersatnd how someone could be asexual.

Mary No one knows about it.

Kylie I feel most don’t know enough.

Anonymous It’s viewed as both good and bad, it depends on who you’re talking to.

Anonymous

Q uestions

of the

M onth

8

Not many people are aware of it but for those who are but aren’t allies to the ace community,they see it as a mental illness or something to be fixed.

Anonymous Usually fairly positive from what I’ve seen.

Evan Asexuality = no sex (which isn’t true).

Kris I think it’s viewed pretty neutrally.

Cinda A simple way to put it: you either have a crush on someone, or you’re searching for a partner. There’ll always be someone that tries to play “matchmaker” here.

Lori As something nonexistent; a phase. There are a few exceptions, usually in certain areas trying to be LGBTQA+ tolerant. However, this is usually limited to a very specific age group of late teens, early twenties. Anyone older - or sadly younger - is usally unaware of asexuality or aromanticism existing.

L Most people that I know don’t believe it.

Jean Asexuality in the UK is often not acknowledged, but when it is you are met with people not believing you, saying that it’s not a real thing, and you just haven’t met the right person yet.

Sophie I don’t know. Feel alone here.

Kym Confusion, contradiction, dismissed.

Anonymous I have been treated like I am just trying to get attention. I have been told it is BS. Carol

Q uestions

of the

M onth

9

I’d hazard to say it’d be treated like any other non-hetero orientation. I know one of my ex’s did not see my relationship with a woman as valid because she also identified as asxual.

Amber Pretty positively (back in 2019, our governor declared an official asexual awareness week). ezra It is acceptable to my friends and not normal for the older generation.

Eshk People are very open, inclusive and kind here to all LGBTQIA+ individuals. But it’s definitely talked less about, which makes it feel less known, valid and important.

Andrea Andres

WHAT, IF ANY IS THE ASEXUAL ACTIVISM ACTIVITIES IN YOUR AREA OR COUNTRY AND ARE YOU PART OF ANY ASEXUAL ACTIVISM? I do not know of any, unfortunately.

Mary I am not.

Kylie Zero.

Anonymous I don’t know of any asexual activism groups where I am.

Anonymous

Q uestions

of the

M onth

10

We were trying to include asexuality in the recent law against conversion therapy, but I guess not many people care about it (we also lack of ace people telling about the conversion therapy they have suffered from).

Anonymous There’s Asexual Awareness Month and Asexual Awareness Week,that’s all I can think of but other than that,there’s not a lot.

I’m not part of any asexual activism.

Anonymous I am not aware of any. I wish I was a part of it.

Evan None that I know of in my area, and i’m not a part of asexual activism. I recently joined a pride club and I want to give a speech on aromanticism (for aromantic week coming soon, as I am aroace). I would also like to give one for asexuality for our international day in April, which would be very cool!!!

Kris I don’t know of any asexual activism activities in my area. If there were any, I would love to join!

Cinda Western Aces and Aros at Western Washington University exists, though meetings have been canceled due to COVID. Here is a link: https://win.wwu.edu/organization/aces-and-aros L I’m not just because I can’t find any in my state.

Jean None and no.

Sophie None.

Kym Not that I know of.

Anonymous I don’t know if there are any.

Carol

Q uestions

of the

M onth

11

I just moved, but I’d love to get involved with something local.

Amber I’m part of my high school’s QSA, and about 1/3 of us are asexual. There’s also a website called “Seattle Aces and Aros’’ for aro ace-spec people in the area to meet up. ezra Unfortunately no, but I’m still searching.

Eshk I’m only just learning about what’s going on here (only known about my Asexuality for 6 months or so). I’ve raised money and awareness for our local organization (PRIDE Squamish) by auctioning off one of my paintings. That went over pretty well. Our local PRIDE Squamish does not talk a lot about Asexuality (even during Asexual awareness week). I’ve since talked to the leaders about this. I’m hoping to get more involved as things open up again. I’ve talked about it on my instagram quite a bit (especially during the awareness week) @AndreaAndresPhotography and @AndreaAndresArt. Andrea Andres

ARE YOU PART OF ANY ONLINE OR OFFLINE ASEXUAL COMMUNITY IN YOUR COUNTRY, STATE OR LANGUAGE? Just AVEN for now.

Mary Nope.

Kylie No. Anonymous

Q uestions

of the

M onth

12

No. Anonymous No. Anonymous No,I’m not part of any online or offline Asexual community even though I’m asexual.

Anonymous I am a part of AVEN. Offline I am not a part of anything.

Evan Definitely online, with spacemalmo on instagram. Also I am in many aspec discord servers.

Kris I’m part of AVEN, but that’s it.

Cinda Haven’t found anything other than general queer+trans safe spaces and this.

Lori No. I would like to be, but am afraid of being recognized by intolerant people in my town. This place is sharply divided between the extremely liberal and extremely intolerant; the left and right.

L Asexually.org.

Jean Yes. Sophie No. Kym Just learned about it. waiting for an admin to accept me.

Anonymous

Q uestions

of the

M onth

13

The only one I could find is in Auckland and they only let people in Auckland join.

Carol I’m trying to get more involved with something online as I’m learning more about myself.

Amber School’s QSA, “Seattle Aces and Aros” website & meetups. ezra There is a friend of mine in the university who thinks she is asexual and we share religion, language and nationality.

Eshk COVID has really limited my ability to get involved and find others in the Ace community near me here in Squamish and in Vancouver. I’m aware of some (online) but I hope to connect with more groups of people (not just the leaders) in person soon.

Andrea Andres

Q uestions

of the

M onth

14

AVEN BEAR: WORLD-TRAVELING AVEN AMBASSADOR Interview by Janus the Fox AVENite Kelly had a job that took her on many business trips to many countries. A traveling companion was Abbie the AVEN Bear. They met in 2009 when Kelly was on a business trip in Switzerland. According to the first “The New Adventures of AVEN Bear”, Abbie’s task was to wander the globe to increase visibility of AVEN. Since then, Abbie (along with Kelly) has attended AVEN meetups in the USA, England, Europe, Korea, and Australia. Abbie has also attended LGBT+ and Asexual conferences and helped give presentations on asexuality.

Along the way, Ambassador Abbie and Kelly went on to visit many countries, sharing info about AVEN and asexuality, while having Indiana Jones-like adventures.

They went on a safari in Kenya, searched for the Holy Grail at Petra in Jordan (and found it in France), searched for and found the Lost Ark in Ethiopia, found the Lost City of the Inca in Peru, and found the source of the River Nile in Uganda. Abbie also visited Mount Etna after an eruption, visited the home of Robert Lewis Stevenson in Samoa and the home of famous asexual Edward Gorey in Massachusetts, among other adventures. These were shared in the thread: https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/40325-the-new-adventures-of-aven-bear/ Kelly no longer has a job that pays her to travel the world, and Abbie is in semi-retirement, but we do have some photos to share.

AVEN B ear

15

1. With friends at The International Asexuality Conference, Toronto, 2014.

2. At an AVEN meetup in Cambridge.

3. With Dr. Jamison Green, president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), at the 2011 WPATH symposium, where we released our new guidelines.

AVEN B ear

16

4. At an AVEN meetup in San Francisco, 2009.

5. With former AVEN Moderator and Administrator, the late but beloved Kez (with the original AVEN Bear), Sydney, 2009.

6. At Doctor Who’s house.

AVEN B ear

17

7. At Stonehenge (Barsky!).

8. At the source of the River Nile, Uganda.

9. Outside the Chapel of the Tablet, which supposedly contains the tablets of the Ark of the Covenant, Axum, Ethiopia.

AVEN B ear

18

10. On a safari in Kenya.

11. Heading to Mt. Etna to explore after an eruption.

12. At a castle in Korea.

AVEN B ear

19

13. At the top of the Empire State Building (with a bird friend).

AVEN B ear

20

INTERVIEW WITH ANONYMOUS

by Janus the Fox So, what are your activism efforts in your country?

My efforts now have spanned about 8 years, erm and have actually gone way out of the country at this point, i’m fortunately been able to do a lot of activism and advocacy work internationally at this point, i mean even physically, so for example, i had the opportunity to do some work on Asexuality in counties such as Czech Republic, in Sweden, in London, in New Zealand, in US a couple of times and even in Sri Lanka. All of this was physical in the pre-pandemic times. So i did this by bringing up asexuality as a subject to be explored in conferences. These conferences were sexuality conferences or LGBTIAQ conferences, human rights programs and events and other kinds of things, and so on, you know. For example the first time i did this was all the way back in 2017 at the world association for sexual congress which was being held in Prauge. I submitted my paper on asexuality which was considered luckily and i presented that paper at the conference, i also had that paper published in the journal of sexual medicence. Turns out this was actually the first time any such academic on asexuality that had ever come out of my country, and then in 2019, so i don’t know if you know about ILGA, ILGA is this is huge old orginization that has been working on LGBT causes for a really long time and they have these things called ILGA world conferences. In 2019 they held it in New Zealand where where i conducted my own workshop on asexuality and i also noticed they had the asexual flag in their poster, only to later find out that this was the first ever time that they had actually included the asexual flag in their world conference posters ever in their entire history and this this was also the first time that had a session being done on asexuality which means that if i hadn’t of submitted my proposal to the workshop and if i hadn’t travelled all the way to New Zealand, they still wouldn’t have done it, the flag still wouldn’t have been included, i mean what gives, but that’s the work that i’ve been able to do internationally, and then of course at the regional level, even

I nterview

with

A nonymous

21

at the very outset when i was staring work, in fact that was the entire reason i started doing this because their was zero work being done in Asia back then.

I started in 2014 and i started looking in 2013, so there was just no work back in those days and all activism around asexuality was concrentated in the USA and later to some extent, the UK, but it was definitely not seving any other geography’s. I knew that i really needed this kind of movement to be organised, and so at some point i just decided to not wait for somebody else to do this and just went ahead and took the leap myself and over the years it also became very very apparent that while there’ many commonalities between the movements in different parts of the world, there are some very stark differences between how american asexuality movements have been shaped and the ones in asia, and there are some very interesting similarities between asian counties, social culture similarities, which kind of lend a very unique brand of asexuality activism to this part of the world which is very different from western counterparts and that’s how in 2021 i started orginising the PANasia conference which is the asexuality asia conference and last year was the first such conference we ever had and hopefully we’ll keep doing it, but it’s at the national level which is the question that you had actually asked, where my activism had actually started and i continue to remain quite focused on that. It started all the way back in 2014, we do awareness campaigns, workshops, even speed dating events and many other community events and campaigns on social media, so for example for IAD, we have set up campaigns to invite people to give contributions, to leave terms related to asexuality in their own local languages. One branch of this is for Indian languages which are published on Indian Aces, and the other is for all Asian languages which is on Asexuality In Asia

I nterview

with

A nonymous

22

How did your organisation start, either founded by yourself, or the history of your organisation?

Like I was saying, it started all the way back in 2014, as a simple facebook page, which by the way is still very much active. At that point however I had never thought that it would grow to the extent that it has. I did not expect this work to become so important to me and I could never have foreseen the kind of impact that I now know it creates. By now i’ve of course orginised hundreds of events under Indian Aces, again more that you can add under the activism, the efforts of Indian Aces, that in 2018-2019 over the span of many months, almost more than a year actually, i travelled across my country, conducting workshops and creating meetups for the asexuality community and the asexual cause. Across ten cities, I literally travelled physically to ten cities.

What organisations or activism are you part of?

The 3rd question is what organisations or activism are you a part of. I don’t know if i understand this correctly but i have again over the last 7-8 years ended up doing a lot of smaller organisations as my work has expanded, so now i have Humans of Queer, there is Indian Aces, there is Platonicity, there is Subhar, which is Sexual And Mental Association India and there’s PANasia, so these are all the orginisations that i have right now and that’s about all.

I nterview

with

A nonymous

23

What difficulties has been raised in spreading knowledge of the existence of asexuality?

Oh so many, i could write about this, i could speak about this for about an hour even but in brief, some challenges that i have faced at the beginning are now simply gone and they’ve gone forever now, for not just me but for anybody else in this country actually. You know, like turning the wheel for the first time is just the hardest right, it’s our enemy as people who are starting a movement. One the wheel of course gathers some momentum, it’s easier to keep it going than to give it that first turn. Thankfully that day has passed and I’ve been able to overcome that initial fear. Now that the movement has gathered, a lot of pace in this country to be honest, there’s no looking back now, there’s no way this can ever be undone.

If I were to reflect back on those times, apart from the many other challenges, I think the interesting thing that I used to notice was how no one believed that this was actually worth doing or nobody understood why I was doing it. They didn’t understand as a medical graduate why i would spend so much time, so much effort, so much energy doing this instead of, you have to understand that, i can’t even explain in words the amount of effort it took, especially as i was doing this all by myself. I started this by myself. I just got tired of waiting for somebody else to support me. Now things are a lot easier in many ways, one of the challenges, now that we have become a little more aspirational about things, is to overcome the language barrier that exists within the country. India uses over 100 languages

I nterview

with

A nonymous

24

within the country itself, even in terms of volume, it’s really hard to get translations in the first place but then the more important thing is, for me at least, personally, is to have accurate translations and that i think is even more challenging because there’s a lot lost in translation and i just don’t want to do any kind of disservice in haste,i don’t want to forgo the conceptual clarity, like doing justice to the cause is important to me, so it’s still very hard but i’m trying.

Having said that there are actually two challenges that i can say that i am yet to overcome, first the very beginning of this work that i started doing, it can be summed up under how to make this movement completely self sustainable without me having to fuel it with my own energy, my own funds and so on and so forth. Now how i sustain it is by organising some kind of fundraising event once in a while and then utilising those funds to have people join me on ad-hoc basis, as interns, sometimes volunteer, so on and so forth, and that’s how i’m able to get the resources, how i’m able to generate the resources. Having been the sole person, driving this, without any sustained external support, it’s been exhausting honestly, and now i’m trying to rework the entire structure of this in such a way that i can take a breather and i don’t have to put in my energy, my time, my money into the movement and that all of this can be generated by the movement itself, so Indian Ace’s i wanted to become completely self sustaining, itself sustainable without me having to pull it myself.

In your efforts, how far do you know its spread in your area, how many people do you think your activism has reached?

So honestly, directly i know through me interacting with people i have already raised thousands, tens of thousands of possibly through various pride walks and workshops and meetups and talks, and online talks that i give, instagram lives that i do and so on and so forth. I don’t know how else to put a number to this. I don’t know if this is relevant but my efforts were also recognised by the BBC in 2019 which meant that Asexuality got a platform at a global level in a way that it probably hadn’t had before. Then of course i’m sure that it’s reached tens of thousands of people through word of mouth, social media and all of the online campaigns that we do.

I nterview

with

A nonymous

25

INTERVIEW WITH SPIRALLINGSNOWY

by Janus the Fox Hi I’m SpirallingSnowy, otherwise known as Gemma, and I’m an admin member for Australian Asexuals. I would like to acknowledge the Wallamedegal People of the Eora Nation as the traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work.

In the spirit of reconciliation, Australian Asexuals acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past, present and emerging, and extend our respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. We acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. It always was and always will be, Aboriginal land

What’s your activism efforts in your country or country where you are?

I am one of the admin team for Australian Asexuals, the national asexual organisiation in Australia. The admin team is made up of individuals in several states and territories in Australia, and we are active in the LGBTQIA+ community as well as pride festivals, participating in International Asexuality Day and Ace Week. We get regular media requests from Australian media as well as requests for collaborations with LGBTQIA+ organisations and services within Australia.

How did your organisation start, either founded by yourself, or the history of your organisation?

Between 2006-2009, myself and a few other Australian Asexuals put together a website called Asexual Awareness Australia, or A3. in 2009, i created our facebook group, and we also had a fb page. Later on, members

I nterview

with

S piralling S nowy

26

of our admin team created a Sydney based fb group, to unify organisation with Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, They created Australian Asexuals as an entity and A3’s fb page was defunct as so was changed into the main page for Australian Asexuals. Since those beginnings we now have had a website, fb groups for each state and territory, dating groups, Asia-Pacific Asexuals and Oceania Asexuals fb pages and groups.

What organisations of activism are you part of?

Asexuality Organisers International Australian representative for International Asexuality Day Proud at Woolworths - my workplaces Pride committee Part of the research team who put together the 2021 Asexual Experiences Survey put together by ACT Aces & Australian Asexuals Aussie Ace Week Team AVEN Project Team Other admin are members of state/territory and nationally recognised LGBTQIA+ groups and organisations, including workplace based pride groups, LGBTQIA+ sporting groups, LGBTQIA+ committees at a state/territory level, including The World Pride 2023 pride committee.

What difficulties has been raised in spreading knowledge of the existence of asexuality?

I came out as Ace in 2005, and back then we were just trying to introduce the term asexual to the wider world, and many of the terms we use to describe nuances within the Asexual Umbrella

I nterview

with

S piralling S nowy

27

didnt exist. 17 years later, it can get frustrating when it feels like we are still doing Ace 101, especially when it comes to getting our fellow LGBTQIA+ peeps to understand that asexuality is a real thing, and the term has been around alot longer than I have been out. I dream of the day when asexuality is as well an understood term as any other sexuality, and then maybe we can work on the Ace 102 and beyond, and acceptance of asexuality as being just another facet of the human experience.

Australia is a very widespread country and most meetups have been in capital cities. Asexuals try to attend their city’s pride festivals, and COVID has made that a challenge. The last 2 years we have held an online event for Ace Week called Aussie Ace Week, to bring our community together when we couldn’t in person.

Australia is in a unique position. While the official language spoken here is English, Australia is a multicultural country and prides itself on its diversity. Because we are not as big as other English speaking countries like the USA/UK, most asexual resources/media/research is not Australian based, or doesn’t include Australia. On the other hand, in our region, we are the country with the largest contingent of asexuals, with many of our neighbouring countries in Asia and the pacific either not having very many asexuals who are out/in a group, or not having an organisation in which to find such people.

Our closest neighbours such as New Zealand and Indonesia, either have smaller numbers, no group, both, not very active, or the aces that live there are not around on social media. So we try to build regional connections, make sure we have diverse and varied representatives in both media requests and Ace Week events, while still understanding the privilege we have as a country compared to many countries that surround us.

I nterview

with

S piralling S nowy

28

The other thing that is a challenge is trying to engage the First Nations people who might be asexual. As a country we have a shameful & complicated history with how our first nations people have been treated in the past, and still are, and as an organisation we are always on the look out for Indigenous Australian Aces, because we want to make sure our organisation represents EVERY Australian, and not just white Aussies. Indigenous Australians have lived in this country for over 65,000 years, and In your efforts, how far do you know its spread in your area, how many people you’d think your activism has reached?

Id like to the think that ive helped some people along the way, work out where they fit in under the LGBTQIA+ banner.

Australian Asexuals continue to get media requests and receive emails and msgs from people who found out about themselves from seeing something from one of us out in the world. Many people who make media requests tell us that they have learnt something new about asexuality, and talking to us makes them realise how much they just didnt know. Organisations such as Amenesty Intl Australia are including the A in their acronyms, and durinbg the 2020& 2021 Sydney Mardi Gras paarades, Asexuality was discussed by the hosts when the Australian Asexuals float was on screen, and Mardi Gras is now including the A in their acronym, which are all very important things here. Courteny Act, one of the hosts, in both years, made sure to include the A and explained Asexuality on social media when explaining what all the other letters in the acronym mean, and its awesome to see a LGBTQIA+ celebrity in this country making sure Asexuals are included.

I nterview

with

S piralling S nowy

29

PHYSICAL & MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES

BY SCARLETLATITUDE

Physical Health Resources • PopSugar Fitness (https://www.youtube.com/user/ popsugartvfit) “POPSUGAR Fitness offers fresh fitness tutorials, workouts, and exercises that will help you on your road to healthy living, weight loss, and stress relief. Check out Class FitSugar, our do-it-along-withus real-time workout show to sweat alongside fitness experts and Hollywood’s hottest celebrity trainers. Class FitSugar regularly covers the most buzzed-about workout classes and trends, including the Victoria’s Secret workout, Tabata, P90X, Bar Method, and more.”

• Yoga with Adriene (https://www.youtube.com/user/ yogawithadriene) “Our mission is to connect as many people as possible through high-quality free yoga videos. We welcome all levels, all bodies, all genders, all souls! Browse our library of free yoga videos to find a practice that suits your mood or start a journey toward healing.”

• Body Project (https://www.youtube.com/c/ BodyProjectchallenge) “High energy, motivating workouts to do from home. We created Team Body Project to share our passion for exercise and excellent movement with others who want to feel good about their body and experience great health.”

P hysical H ealth R esources

30

Mental Health Resources *If you or someone you know is currently experiencing a mental health emergency, please call your local emergency services (911, 999, 000, etc.).

International • Check Point (https://checkpointorg.com/global/) Websites and emergency contact numbers listed by country.

•

7 Cups (https://www.7cups.com/)

Call or chat with a therapist for emotional support.

USA • SAMHSA (https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/ national-helpline) “SAMHSA’s National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders.”

•

IMAlive (https://www.imalive.org/)

Online crisis help chat UK M ental H ealth R esources

31

•

Mental Health Foundation (https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/)

Information and resources for mental health.

•

Together UK (https://www.together-uk.org/)

Online and in person help Canada • Crisis Services Canada (https://www.crisisservicescanada.ca/ en/) Call and text services in English and French.

•

Canadian Mental Health Association (https://cmha.ca/)

Information and resources. You can look up information based on your location. v •

Lifeline Australia (https://www.lifeline.org.au/)

24/7 crisis support through phone, text, and online chat.

•

Kids Helpline Australia (https://kidshelpline.com.au/)

Resources for kids and adults.

M ental H ealth R esources

32

A rtworks

by

S ince

33

ASEXY PUZZLE – WORD SEARCH

A sexy P uzzle

34

ACE SPOTLIGHT AVEN is not affiliated with or responsible for other websites listed here

“SIP, SOY ASEXUAL” (YUP, I’M ASEXUAL) A tumblr for all Spanish speaking aces to feel welcomed and loved! https://adivinaquienesasexual.tumblr.com/

KITTEN KOMFORTS - LGBTQIA+ SOAPS For every ace flag bar of soap sold, we’re donating $1 to ace organizations! This includes AVEN, Asexual Outreach, and local groups.

On top of that, for every aro themed bar of of sold, we’re donating $1 to an aro organization called AUREA. I can ship to North America and Europe right now. If you want to order soap and don’t see your country listed as an option, get in touch with Heart via PM on AVEN or use the “Contact Us” page on the website and I’ll figure it out! https://kittenforts.square.site/shop/lgbtqia-/6

35

For our 53rd issue, we will be exploring the Asexual Dating world. We are exploring how asexuals, romantic or not, how they navigate finding a partner and the difficulties surrounding it!

Fill out our questions of the month form here: https:// forms.gle/yth8D21LoxCuNpn2A

REMEMBER, WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR ARTICLES AND ARTWORK TO ADD TO AVENUES! • To submit creative works, please go here: https://goo.gl/forms/QQqfdfOR69niJFoP2 • Send us your asexy jokes and puns here: https://goo.gl/forms/Rg4vlY6XZ7c17bNJ3 • For larger submissions, please email us at avenues.submissions@gmail.com • You may also send a private message to any of the AVENues staff on AVEN

REMEMBER THAT WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR MORE PEOPLE TO JOIN OUR TEAM! SEND ONE OF US A MESSAGE ON AVEN FOR MORE INFO!