International Asexuality Day Date in the current year: April 6, 2024

Asexuality is the lack of sexual attraction to others, or low or absent interest in or desire for sexual activity. Some people consider it a sexual orientation, while others prefer to describe asexuality as a lack of sexual orientation. The gray asexuality spectrum includes sexual orientations between asexuality and sexuality, such as demisexuality. People who identify as gray ace experience sexual attraction on occasion.

Asexuality should not be confused with sexual abstinence. Unlike asexuals, people who refrain from some or all aspects of sexual activity experience sexual attraction but do not act on it for various reasons, including moral, religious, medical, psychological, financial, legal, social, etc.

Many people think that asexuals are repulsed by sex, but this is only partially true. Some asexuals do find sex repulsive, while others are simply not interested in sex. There are asexual people who engage in sexual activity due to curiosity, to please their romantic partners, for procreation, or for other reasons. To put it short, asexuality does not necessarily equal anti-sexuality.

Another common stereotype is that asexuals don’t need romantic relationships. Again, this is only partially true. While some asexual people are also aromantic, it is common for asexual people to experience romantic attraction. They may identify as heteroromantic, homoromantic, biromantic, panromantic, demiromantic, or grayromantic. While it may be hard for asexual people to find a compatible romantic partner, this doesn’t mean that it is impossible or that they don’t want to be in a relationship.

International Asexuality Day is an international awareness campaign created to promote the ace umbrella. It focuses on advocacy, celebration, education, and solidarity. The observance was created to complement Ace Week (the last week of October) and other ace events, but with a special emphasis on supporting the international ace community in non-anglophone and non-Western countries, where ace people often lack information, resources, and support.

International Asexuality Day doesn’t have one particular organization behind it. Local events are organized by different ace groups in their respective countries. For example, in 2021, International Asexuality Day events were held in Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, Nepal, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The list of planned events can be found at the campaign’s official website.

The date of International Asexuality Day, April 6, doesn’t have some special symbolic meaning. It was chosen to avoid clashes with other significant international awareness days, as well as to increase ace visibility during the first half of the year, since Ace Week is held in October.