Welcome to the first guest post of 30 Days of Pride. Kate Reña is here to talk about their journey of self-discovery and what they’re proud of this month. Let’s give them a warm welcome!
I am asexual, & proud.
I am nonbinary, & proud.
Relative to the vast majority of people who claim these identities?
I am, also, OLD AS BALLS.
(I’m pretty proud of that, too, on account of I have survived a LOT of shite over the last 47 years, & I am STILL HERE.)
What I’m really proud of, though, is y’all. You kids & young adults can get off my lawn who’ve brought these identities into the public eye. Who’ve stood up & said I AM STANDING RIGHT HERE when others have said that asexuality is ‘just a phase’, that being nonbinary is ‘against biology’.
Cos without them — without all of YOU — I’d still be figuring out who the hell I am & what the hell is wrong with me.
(Turns out it’s nothing.)
I mean it’s not like the concepts are new? I know the queer community has been talking about asexuality as a queer identity since at LEAST the 70s, & people who aren’t men or women (or some of each or both, or none of the above) have been acknowledged in lots of cultures, all round the world, for a zillionty years.
But it’s y’all who’ve brought both of these ideas into the modern age, & got the word out so us old folk could find out about them too. You’re the ones taking most of the crap from the terfs & exclusionists & radfems who’re trying to drive us out of our own communities. & you are STILL HERE.
We are all STILL HERE.
Thank you.
About Kate Reña
I guess it just really tends to feel like everyone has their identity figured out during their teenage years and after that, people kinda expect you to stay more or less the same?
If I’d ever HEARS of the concept of nonbinary people I might even have managed that part! But I still wouldn’t have figured out I’m ace for another couple decades.
Such a great post! I only started figuring out my sexuality at age 25, and while that’s not *exactly* old, it still feels like everyone is way ahead of me sometimes, so my aroace heart loves reading about people learning more about who they are later in their lives
RIGHT, it kinda feels like some places anyone who’s not a teenager anymore is old? Although thinking back to when I _was_ a teenager, yeah, that’s how I felt too, so.