What I Mean & Why, Part 2a (Neuro, lead-in) by Ib Grace

Thanks to Cassandra on Twitter, I have this graphic to show some of the ace style ways of being queer in more detail, relating them to the Asexual Spectrum:

Huffington Post via AVENwiki, which I got via @CassandraB on Twitter.

But you can also note when looking at this that while the disclaimer says not all asexuals will identify with it, it also does include in the dotted lines, all sorts of people such as a sexual aromantic person, whom I would guess goes in for one night stands, unspecified gender attraction.  I have always liked the idea of homoromantic, thinking that my romantic love was more important than sex. I like chivalry.  I'm glad people started really using this concept and making it a Thing.  Not that I am not sex positive.

But another thing. Just because I am sex positive does not mean I think I am the sex police, and being sex positive does not mean I get to say everyone wants to have sex because that is part of the human condition.  What do I know about the human condition? I know about my own, and those of the people I listen to. So I should listen. That is my point here.  People have their own humanities and human conditions and ways to selve.

Here is another graphic provided to me by Corbett O'Toole which is inclusive of different divergences:

by Marillyn Anjos Agnoletto for AVEN

This one is more indicative of the ways people I know talk about asexuality, and includes fetishes, porn and self-love, as well as poly and pan, which reject gender binaries, going into more detail on that.

What are not on these particular graphics are ways to be trans*

Trans* is a way to be Queer.  I don't have a graphic of this, but please feel free to send them in, or better yet, Trans* folk, be a guest writer for this blog!

Trans* people can have any orientation there is.  So can genderqueer.  So here is my point and why I am still talking about queerness per se in the lead-up to how I am talking about the Neuro part of NeuroQueer:

The flagship way of being queer or sort of the inaugural way, or posterchild way, or whatever you want to call it, is to be gay or lesbian, and I am this, which gives me privilege of a relative sort.  It gives me the kind of privilege to where I could have chosen (if I were that kind of unfortunate person) to be one of these unctuous HRC slimeballs who thought it necessary to throw everyone else under the bus to assimilate, as if we never learned anything from Harvey Milk, may he rest in peace, even knowing this was done, may we reverse it and learn from it and stop doing this wrongness.

Because I will never use my privilege to be like that, and if I see my friends accidentally doing it, I will say, hey friends, you are accidentally doing a thing that is probably not what you meant to be doing, because this is what it is.  If you are at the top of the everloving ladder you do not kick that ladder down, you gather the people like you who have the muscle and luck that is relative privilege and you cement that ladder there, fortify it with some rebar, get the architects in and make it wider, that's what you do. You make it permanent, a fixture, safer and bigger.  With handlebars.  You draw plans for the elevator right away, a big giant elevator that creates jobs and leaves behind nobody.  That is what you do.

The Neurodiversity movement was invented because of Autistics, and the inaugural flagship posterchild whatever way of being neurodivergent is by being Autistic.  I am Autistic.  So get ready because I am going to go into more detailed detail about ways of being Neurodivergent historically and with a wide range, and I'm going to say why this is important, and I'm going to talk about coalition and handlebars and elevators and the whole lot of it, with a fiery passion.  You may be surprised by who counts as neurominorities according to me, and what I think follows from that but I'm nothing if not willing to explain myself and take my lumps and try again if my explanation isn't good enough.

Thanks for listening,
Love,
Ib