What’s Going On: June 2019
Written by the AUREA Team
Word count: 1131
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Ever wanted an aro-centric events calendar or an aromantic themed reading list? On the first Friday of every month AUREA will do our best to provide. While we may be relatively unknown there are countless aros across the globe making motions to unite and build our community. This first update showcases their events with a prideful bang!
Are you online?
Introducing the Carnival of Aros. This blogging carnival is a monthly event where aros get to talk about being aro. Previous months have seen the Intersection of Religion and Aromanticism, Coming Out/Being Out, and It’s Great To be Aro (it is!!). The Carnival is hosted by a different aro blog each time and should you decide to volunteer the topic is yours to choose.
This month Kaikiky is our host and the topic is “Imagine”, more specifically: imagine a world without amatonormativity. From the 1st to the 30th you have the opportunity to bring that (dream)world to life.
On the topic of amatonormativity, fandom is quite entrenched in the romance of it all. Fortunately #AggressivelyArospecWeek has returned for the fourth year in a row and they’re here to celebrate your work. Thanks to this annual event our creativity can be promoted and appreciated by aros across the platform. Jump on Tumblr and from the 23rd to the 29th submit your fanfictions, fanarts, fanvids, headcanons, playlists, and whatever else your heart desires. Visit #AggressivelyArospec to see the previous years’ content.
This Pride Month is brought to you by Aromantic-Official. On their journey to raise awareness for our community they’re hosting Arospec Pride Month 2019. This is their second year promoting weekly events so over the next 30 days leisurely respond to their list of prompts and celebrate your identity! Write, draw, sing, dance, salute and/or angst your aromanticism with pride.
Out and about?
Should you find yourself in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA check out the TAAAP agenda. The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project will be taking a break from providing resources and education to march and enjoy themselves at four separate Pride events! Nearing the end of the month TAAAP will be back in the ring and in attendance of two advocacy conferences. The Human Rights Conference of WorldPride NYC, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Stonewall, will be presenting a panel on underrepresented and overlooked queer identities (that’s us!). And the second conference TAAAP will attend:
The Ace & Aro Conference 2019 for World Pride! This memorable event will have an array of ace and aro guest speakers as well as activities both social and educational in nature. Not only will this conference bring tangible visibility to the a-spec community, it is a beautiful way to make friends. For those of us who can’t attend keep an eye on hosts Aces NYC, AVEN, and the guest speakers to live vicariously through them.
Aces NYC promise to keep us aros busy this month. A quick scan of their events calendar shows four events — without including the conference! — that explicitly welcome aros. We’re talking about a picnic, media discussions, a movie night for teens, and a delicious dinner. Not to mention you’ll also find them celebrating at both the Bronx and Manhattan Pride events.
Marching once again in the Seattle Pride parade Seattle Aces & Aros will be out in abundance. You have until the 30th to strap on your most comfortable shoes, hoist your flags, and create your signs. Take a look at the photos from their 2018 Pride parade for both inspiration and a stirring of gratification. Seattle Aces & Aros will also have a booth at the Capitol Hill PrideFest on the 29th.
Moving north, Calgary Asexuals & Aromantics are holding a picnic for Pride: their annual Pride Planning Picnic. Would you like to march with the CAA for Pride? On the 22nd their schedule needs planning and so does their follow-up Meet and Greet. Bring your favourite food and outdoor activities to make yourself comfortable. CAA will also be holding their regular brunch on the 30th!
We’ve got words
As a young community aromantics have much to say and not necessarily the vocabulary to communicate everything we want to yet. AUREA provides a Glossary of terms for you to view at your leisure and in our monthly update we will boost recently coined vocabulary. Here is a list of words created this past May:
Unit aro - describes an aromantic person who identifies only or primarily as aromantic, centering their aromantic identity as their preferred unit.
Unit aro coined by: Neir (original, archived)
Unicum aro/Solaro - describes a person who feels that their identity is uniquely aro, just aro, or only/solely aro. Can be thought of to be an experience under the non-SAM/unit aro umbrella.
Unicum aro coined by: Magni (original, archived)
Unicum aro as a subset of non-SAM/unit aro proposed by: arokeladry (original, archived)
Solaro coined by: archived (original, archived)
Primaro/Archaro - describes a person who feels that their aro identity is more important than other identities or is their “primary” or most important identity. Can be thought of to be an experience under the non-SAM/unit aro umbrella.
Primaro coined by: reesexaviergonzales (original, archived)
Primaro as a subset of non-SAM/unit aro proposed by: arokeladry (original, archived)
Archaro coined by: arokeladry (original, archived)
Neu(tro) aro/Neutral aro/Arohaze/Aromush/Arovoid - describes an aromantic person whose identity on the allosexual-asexual spectrum and/or on other orientation spectrums is neutral, in-between, multiple, or unsure.
Neu(tro)/Neutral aro coined by: a-romantic--aromantic (original, archived)
Neu(tro)/Neutral aro Flag (original, archived)
Arohaze/Aromush coined by: liquidlikecats (original, archived)
Arohaze/aromush Flag (original, archived)
Arovoid coined by: @aroaceitup (original, archived)
Arovoid Flag (original, archived)
Aros in the media
How many famous aros do you know? How many aro-centric interviews have you read? How many fingers have you used up on that one hand of yours? With time, of course, this will change and here we will record those rare sightings.
Don’t forget the + by Ella Al-Khalil-Coyle.
“The labels that empowered others, always felt alienating to me, be it over ethnic or sexual identity.”
An article on the complications, confusions, and just maybe the success of finding a label for yourself, or not! (Fourth article down.)
Aromantics address
The current and ongoing discussions in various areas of the community debate the usefulness and accuracy of the split attraction model, how prone to assumption and binaries the community as a whole is, the frequently with which conversations go in circles, and now in relation to the aforementioned topics: whether we're coming up with bandaid solutions to many of our issues. Once again, we are a young community and there are kinks aplenty to iron out. Our website is currently in beta and if you wish to volunteer your ironing ability, submit your feedback for the official AUREA launch on the 21st!