The CESJDS Gay-Straight Alliance held Ace Awareness Week last week in order to help educate the community about asexuality, otherwise known as Ace.

“[The week was] to raise awareness for one of the colors, one of the stripes, of the LGBTQ community,” Jewish text teacher and GSA faculty advisor Derek Rosenbaum said. “It is really to raise that flag and raise awareness for that particular subset, and I think it is also to further sensitize our population here towards the variety of shades of orientations of gender and sexuality and for those who identify as asexual in the school.”

To be asexual means to not have any sexual desire whatsoever. When it comes to focusing on sexualtiy, many communities just think in terms of gay and straight, causing those who are asexual to feel invisible Rosenbaum said.
In order to combat “invisibility” and other problems that plague those who are asexual, the JDS GSA sold baked goods every morning of the week to raise funds and awareness, held discussions during clubs, and advocated for as many people to wear the Ace colors of purple, white, gray and black on the final day of the week in order to show solidarity with asexual individuals. Senior Rebecca Morris, who led the weeks’ activities, noted the importance of raising awareness of a sexual orientation that often goes unnoticed.

“There’s really no Ace characters at all in books and movies and asexuality is ignored in news and everything and it’s not really regarded as a possibility,” Morris said.

In addition to sometimes feeling invisible, asexual individuals also have to deal with Acephobia, which often includes the wholesale rejection of the concept of asexuality. Both Morris and Rosenbaum believe that there is some “erasure,” or dismissal of asexuality in the JDS community.

The GSA held discussions in order to fight invisibility and Acephobia; however, the discussions were not as productive as some club members hoped. The event held during clubs on Wednesday did not have a single student that did not usually attend GSA club meetings.

“I think that some in the group were disappointed, but I don’t think they expected huge turnouts or anything like that,” Rosenbaum said. “We talked about how just kind of advertising and having a space for it, even if it’s not taken up, is still raising awareness.”

Now that Ace Awareness Week has finished, the GSA will begin planning for the Transgender Day of Remembrance. While the club has held a day of silence for the Transgender Day of Remembrance in the past, Morris said the club hopes to move in a new direction this year by holding a “day of action.”