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This is a timeline of asexual history worldwide. The briefness of this timeline can be attributed to the fact that acceptance of asexuality as a sexual orientation and field of scientific research is still relatively new.[1][2][3]
1869: Karl-Maria Kertbeny, in the same pamphlets arguing against Prussian sodomy law where he coined the terms "homosexual" and "heterosexual", also used the word "monosexuals" to refer to people who only masturbate.[5]
1890s[]
1896: German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld wrote the pamphlet Sappho und Sokrates, which mentions people without any sexual desire and links them to the concept of "anesthesia sexual".[6]
1897: German sexual reformist Emma Trosse gave the first definition of asexuality in her work Ein Weib? Psychologisch-biographische: Studie über eine Konträrsexuelle (A woman? Psychological-biographical study of a contrary-sexual) under the term Sinnlichkeitslosigkeit (Asensuality) and counted herself as such, stating "Verfasser hat den Mut, sich zu jener Kategorie zu bekennen (Author has the courage to admit to this category)."[7]
20th century[]
1940s–1950s[]
1948: The Kinsey Scale included the category "X" for males who reported no socio-sexual contacts or reactions; according to the research, 1.5% of adult male subjects fell into this category.[8][9]
1953: The Kinsey Scale included the category "X" for females who reported no socio-sexual contacts or reactions; according to the research, 19% of female interviewees fell into this category.[8][10][11]
1960s[]
1969: Anton Szandor LaVey in his book The Satanic Bible referenced asexuals and asexuality, stating that "Satanism condones any type of sexual activity which properly satisfies your individual desires – be it heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or even asexual".[12]
1970s[]
1972: The Asexual Manifesto written by Lisa Orlando is published by the New York Radical Feminists and circulates within feminist circles.[13]
1973: Activists at Barnard College were pictured to include "asexual" on a board advocating to "choose your own label" and had their picture featured in February/March 1973 edition of off our backs.[14] The picture was intended to be released in the previous article which described asexuality to be "an orientation that regards a partner as nonessential to sex, and sex as nonessential to a satisfying relationship."[15]
1974: Singer and composer David Bowie discussed asexuality in Rolling Stone in the article "David Bowie in conversation on sexuality with William S. Burroughs.[16]
1977: Myra Johnson wrote one of the first academic papers about asexuality as part of the book The Sexually Oppressed.[17] She described "asexuality" as a complete lack of sexual desire, while those who do experience sexual desire but have no wish to satisfy it with others were labeled as "autoerotic". Johnson focused on the problems experiences by such women, who she felt were often ignored by the sexual revolution and feminist movements of the time.[17]
1979: In a study published in Advances in the Study of Affect, Michael D. Storms reimagined the Kinsey Scale as a two-dimensional map which included asexuality, defined as exhibiting little to no homo-eroticism nor hetero-eroticism. This type of scale accounted for asexuality for the first time.[18] Storms conjectured that many researchers following Kinsey's model could be mis-categorizing asexual subjects as bisexual, because both were simply defined by a lack of preference for gender in sexual partners.[19][20]
1980s[]
1983: The first study that gave empirical data about asexuals was published in 1983 by Paula Nurius, concerning the relationship between sexual orientation and mental health. The study used a variant of Kinsey's model, and scored participants according to sexual behaviour and desire for it.[21]
1989: American talk show host Sally Jesse Raphael interviewed Toby (alias of Jim Sinclair), a then self-described androgynous and nonsexual person.[22]
1990s[]
1993: The book Boston Marriages: Romantic but Asexual Relationships Among Contemporary Lesbians by Esther D. Rothblum and Kathleen A. Brehony was released.[23]
1994: Anthony Bogaert, conducted a study published in The Journal of Sex Research that concluded that 1 in 100 persons identified as asexual.[24]
1997: Activist Jim Sinclair posted in their website the essay Personal Definitions of Sexuality, originally written in response to a class assignment in 1987, where they defined themself as asexual.[25]
1997: Zoe O'Reilly published the article My life as an amoeba in the StarNet Dispatches webzine, a first-person exploration of asexuality that sparked responses through the late 90s and early 2000s by people who identified with it.[26][27]
2001: David Jay founded the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), which became the most prolific and well-known of the various asexual communities that started to form since the advent of the World Wide Web and social media.[29][30]
2004: Psychologist Anthony F. Bogaert published "Asexuality: prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample" in the Journal of Sex Research. According to this paper, 1% of a 1994 British probability sample indicated feeling no attraction for males nor females.[32]
2004: The New Scientist dedicated an issue to asexuality in response to Bogaert's paper.[33]
2004: Discovery dedicated an episode of The Sex Files to asexuality.[34]
2005: A common symbol for the asexual community is a black ring worn on the middle finger of the right hand.[35] The material and exact design of the ring are not important as long as it is primarily black.[35] This symbol started on AVEN in 2005.[35]
2005: Stephen Hillenburg revealed that SpongeBob SquarePants is asexual.[36]
2006: In January, David Jay appeared on ABC's The View and later in March of that year, he appeared on MSNBC's Tucker program, hosted by Tucker Carlson. On both programs he discussed asexuality.[37][38]
2009: AVEN members participated in the first asexual entry into an American pride parade when they walked in the San Francisco Pride Parade.[39]
2010s[]
2010: The asexual pride flag was introduced to the public.[40] The asexual pride flag consists of four horizontal stripes: black, grey, white, and purple from top to bottom.[40]
2010: Asexual Awareness Week, now called Ace Week, was founded by Sara Beth Brooks in 2010.[41] It occurs in the later half of October, and was created to both celebrate asexual, aromantic, demisexual, and grey-asexual pride and promote awareness.[41]
2014: Dr. Pragati Singh, a gray asexual, launched a Facebook Group called "Indian Aces" for Indian asexuals.[45]
2014: The first Asexual Census took place. The Asexual Census is an annual survey of the asexual community run by the AVEN Survey Team, promoted among various online asexual communities. In 2014 there were 14,210 respondents (10,880 aces and 3,330 non-aces).[46]
2015: One of the earliest asexual YouTubers, AmeliaAce, launched her account in January.[47][48] Her last video, in which she announced she was also bi, was uploaded in June 2018.[49]
2015: George Norman became Britain's first openly asexual local election candidate.[50]
2015: Dr. Pragati Singh launched "Platonicity", an asexual dating platform.[51] The "site" used a Google Form which the user entered their information.[51] Singh would match respondents up "manually" with other users by their answers to questions on the form using an "excel sheet" and "template" she had created.[51] Ultimately, she closed the "site" in 2016 due to an overwhelming response saying "I [didn't] know how to handle so much data" and "as much as I love to do this, it drains me."[51]
2016: Todd Chavez, a character on the Netflix series BoJack Horseman, came out as asexual in the show's Season 3 finale.[52][53]
2016: Joe Parrish became the United States's first openly asexual state election candidate.[54]
2016: The Asexual journal was launched in October by Michael Paramo as "a way to counteract the invisibilization and invalidation of asexuality by publishing the perspectives of asexual people". In 2019 it was renamed to AZE. "AZE is an independent online journal publishing the perspectives of ace, aro, and agender authors."[55]
2017: Nabil Allal and Alaa Yasin launched the "Asexuality in Arabic" social media groups.[56]
2017: The podcast "Sounds Fake But Okay" is launched, hosted by Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca.[57] Costello "identifies as aroace", while Kaszyca identifies as "demisexual and straight".[57]
2018: YouTuber Samantha Rendle, known online as Samantha Aimee, relaunched her YouTube channel to focus on her then newly found asexuality, along with vegan and mental health information as well.[58][59]
2018: An episode of the series The Sex Map of Britain on BBC Three was dedicated to asexuality, entitled I Don't Want Sex.[60]
2019: Then 18-year-old Emi Salida, a British YouTuber who identifies as asexual, appeared in a Sky News documentary on asexuality, alongside Yasmin Benoit.[61][62] Salida's YouTube channel is focused on asexuality in the younger population.[63]
2019: British soap operaEmmerdale featured its first asexual character when Liv Flaherty, played by actress Isobel Steele, came out as asexual.[64]
2019: Bradford, England author Elizabeth Hopkinson, a romantic asexual, began rewriting classic fairy tales with asexual twists.[65]
2019: In an issue of Attitude titled "The Activists", Yasmin Benoit became the first openly asexual woman to appear on the cover of a UK magazine.[72][73]
2019: Washington became the first state in the United States of America to recognize Asexual Awareness Week, which it did through a ceremonial proclamation signed by governor Jay Inslee.[74][75]
2020s[]
2020: In the fourth episode of the Netflix series Sex Education, Florence (played by actress Mirren Mack) realizes she is asexual after talking to Jean, a therapist. Florence tells her she "think[s] [she] might be broken" for not wanting to have sex. Jean tells asks her if she is aware of what asexuality is, telling her "sex doesn’t make us whole. And so, how could you ever be broken?"[76][77]
2020: Jaymee Mak (an allosexual woman), wrote, produced, and co-starred in the short filmIt's Not You. It's Not Me., which was inspired by her relationship with an asexual man.[78][79][80]
2020: Peridot, a character on the Cartoon Network series Steven Universe Future, a continuation of Steven Universe, was confirmed to be asexual and aromantic by one of the show's storyboard artists.[81]
2020: Indian actress Sriti Jha announced, in a poem at Spoken Fest Mumbai, that she was asexual.[82]
2020: The first Virtual Asexual Pride took place from June 17 until June 30, hosted by Jaymie Doyle.[83][84] The Virtual Asexual Pride was hosted online via social media due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is intended to continue Asexual Pride for Ireland and Northern Ireland virtually [83][84]
2020: The article “Why We Christians Should Accept Asexuals”, by Lisa Petriello, was published in Katy Christian Magazine.[86]
2020: Dove Cameron revealed on Twitter that Ruby Hale from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D was asexual.[87]
2020: In October, acerecommended.org launched. The site collects and provides recommendations by and for asexual-spectrum people for mental & physical health care providers, ace content, and religious and spiritual organizations/leaders.[88]
2021: The first International Asexuality Day occurred.[89]
2021: An Asexuality and Aromanticism virtual panel took place on June 5th and was created by ace activist Jaymie Doyle. In the panel this included Jaymie Doyle and Amanda Large explaining what asexuality and aromanticism is, asexual history, terminology, aphobia and asexual history.[90]
2021: Dublin LGBTQ Pride 2021 including a 52 second Asexual slot by ace activists Jaymie Doyle, Amanda Large and two allies.[91][92]
2021: Ace Aro Pride is taking place. Ace Aro Pride is a virtual event by Jaymie Doyle, an ace/aro activist for people in Ireland and Worldwide[1].
^"4"(PDF). Peripheral Desires: The German Discovery of Sex. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2015. p. 122. ISBN9780812291865. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
^Leidinger, Christiane (2013). Transgressionen – Streifzüge durch Leben und Werk von Emma Trosse (1863-1949). Männerschwarm Verlag GmbH.
^ abKinsey, Alfred (1948). "The Kinsey Scale". Kinsey Institute. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
^Kinsey, Alfred C.; Pomeroy, Wardell B.; Martin, Clyde E. (1948). Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Indiana University Press. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
^Kinsey, Alfred C.; Pomeroy, Wardell B.; Martin, Clyde E.; Gebhard, Paul H. (1953). Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Indiana University Press. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
^Orlando, Lisa (September 1972). "The Asexual Manifesto"(PDF). Asexual Caucus/New York Radical Feminists. University of Waterloo. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
^Rennie, Susan (February–March 1973). "Late Copy". Off Our Backs. 3 (6): 7. JSTOR25783532.
^Chapman, Frances (January 1973). "Your Own Label". Off Our Backs. 3 (5): 6. JSTOR25771710.
^ abJohnson, Myra T. (1977). "7". Asexual and Autoerotic Women: Two Invisible Groups. The Sexually Oppressed. Gochros, Harvey L., Gochros, Jean S. New York City: Association Press. pp. 96–107. ISBN978-0809619153. OCLC2543043.
^Owens, Ianna Hawkins (2014). On the Racialization of Asexuality. Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives. Routledge. p. 113. ISBN978-1-134-69253-8. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
^Storms, Michael D. (1979). "Sexual Orientation and Self-Perception". In Pliner, Patricia; Blankstein, Kirk R.; Spigel, Irwin M. (eds.). Perception of Emotion in Self and Others. Advances in the Study of Communication and Affect. Springer Nature. pp. 165–180. doi:10.1007/978-1-4684-3548-1_7. ISBN9781468435481.
^Bogaert, Anthony F. (August 2004). "Asexuality: prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample". Journal of Sex Research. 41 (3): 279–287. doi:10.1080/00224490409552235. ISSN0022-4499. JSTOR4423785. PMID15497056. S2CID41057104.
^Westphal, Sylvia Pagán (October 14, 2004). "Feature: Glad to be asexual". New Scientist. United Kingdom: New Scientist Ltd. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
^"Asexuality on The View, Jan 15 2006". Lincoln Square Productions/American Broadcasting Company. husongshu. January 15, 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
^Jackson, Desmarie; Sim, Emily; Gabi, Backus (November 7, 2019). "Ace Awareness Week". Gia Magazine. Berkeley, California: An Independent Student Group at the University of California at Berkeley. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
