Asexual Spectrum



The asexual spectrum or asexual umbrella is a group of sexual orientations that all fall under the umbrella term of asexual. Individuals on the asexual spectrum may completely lack sexual attraction or feel it so little that they relate more to the asexual experience than to the allosexual experience. The common link between individuals on the asexual spectrum is that they do not feel the "standard" amount of sexual attraction or feel it in the "standard" way.

Individuals on the asexual spectrum are often referred to as "ace-spec" for short. Ace-spec individuals can have any romantic orientation, including aromantic.

Ace-Spec Identities
While there are numerous ace-spec identities, some are more common, like asexual, demisexual, and greysexual, and can stand on their own as identities. Other common ace-spec identities include:
 * Aceflux
 * Acespike
 * Fictosexual
 * Fraysexual
 * Lithosexual, formerly known as akoisexual
 * Reciprosexual

Microlabels
Some identities in the asexual spectrum are microlabels or identities that fall under the umbrella but cannot stand on their own and must be used in addition to another ace-spec label. Some common ace-spec microlabels include:
 * Aegosexual, also known as autochorisexual
 * Apothisexual
 * Bellussexual
 * Caedsexual
 * Cupiosexual
 * Iamvanosexual
 * Myrsexual
 * Placiosexual
 * Requissexual
 * Adexsexual

Terminology
Terms like Sex-Ambivalent, Sex-Favorable, Sex-Indifferent, and Sex-Repulsed help ace-spec individuals explain their relationship with sex. Ace-spec individuals may also have a non-standard understanding of attraction, particularly sexual attraction.

Other terms help ace-spec individuals discuss their orientation beyond sex, such as romantic orientation, the Split Attraction Model, repulsion descriptors, and tertiary attraction. Terms like angled, electio, and oriented are useful for ace-spec individuals who are also part of the aromantic spectrum, also known as "aroace."

Flag
The first flag to gain widespread usage as an acespec flag was the asexual flag, created in August of 2010 to represent the entire asexual spectrum, and it was selected after a thorough three-stage poll by the community, originating on AVEN, the largest acespec community at the time, but extending towards other acespec communities to ensure as many individuals as possible could be included in this decision.

The black stripe represents asexuals and lack of attraction, the grey stripe represents demisexuals, gray-asexuals and everyone else that's on the ace-spec, the white stripe represents allosexual allies and the purple stripe represents the community as a whole, and it was likely chosen because AVEN had purple as part of its colour scheme. It has been adopted as a symbol for asexuals, but has never stopped being used as a symbol of the entire spectrum and to this day it's the most commonly used flag for asexual spectrum communities.

Recently, some individuals have expressed interest in developing a different flag to differentiate the spectrum with all its identities from the asexual identity, regardless of the original intent of the flag, since it has been widely adopted by asexuals. To that end, some different flags have been adopted by these members of the spectrum, these flags were created by Tumblr user theflagarchive on July 25, 2020 and Instagram user sude.the.acespec on June 16, 2021.

For the first flag, the dark blue or black stripe represents the asexual community, its history and solidarity. The purple stripe comes from the asexual flag and represents all asexual identities. The pink stripe represents self-determination, pride in one's identity, and acceptance of one's own and others' asexuality. The cream stripe represents diversity in experiences and types of attractions.

For the second flag, the black stripe represents the spectrum, sexualities that is under the asexual spectrum. The purple stripe also comes from the asexual flag and represents the community, individuals of different regions, religions, genders, sexual or romantic attractions that is in the asexual spectrum. The white stripe represents the acceptance of being in the asexual spectrum, being proud of it. The gray stripe is for the allies, and supporters that accepts the asexual spectrum community no matter what.

A third alternate ace-spec flag was created by FANDOMS user DistinctiveSoy, 20th July 2021. The purple represents all the variation of asexual identities, the white represents inclusivity, the grey represents acceptance of oneself and others, the black represents aro-ace individuals and the spiral represents how different ace-spec sexualities are from allo-spec sexualities.