Aromantic Awareness Week (ASAW), is next week from Feb. 18 to Feb. 24 . The intention of this week is to highlight a lesser known romantic orientation, aromanticism. According to the Aromantic-spectrum Union for Recognition, Education, and Advocacy (AUREA) aromanticism is defined as, “a romantic orientation, which most commonly describes people who experience little to no romantic attraction to others.” Like asexuality, aromanticism is also a spectrum, ranging from no romantic attraction to varying romantic attraction.

Due to the ubiquity of romance and romantic love in society, people who fall outside of the typical spectrum are not often recognized or acknowledged . The complexities of their relationships and their experiences are dismissed.

According to numerous contributors to AUREA’s article, “Aromantic Experiences in the Amatonormative World (Part 1),” their experiences have been much the same.

One anonymous contributor said, “Overall, it seems like the arophobia I’ve experienced can be summed up to blatantly disregarding the fact that I’m aromantic in the first place (erasure) and then using classic done to death acephobia on me as if any of it would even apply if they hadn’t erased my aro identity.” 

Something that aromantic’s and asexuals share is their shared invalidation from the wider LGBTQIA+ community, Blaine Denauer shared in the AUREA article, “I have had queer friends invalidate my queerness because I’m not “gay enough” for them because I don’t date. I have been told that I might even count as a “negative gay,” which is extremely dehumanizing.” Denauer continued sharing, “I’ve had friends ignore my boundaries and my desires and try to forcefully set me up on dates because it made them sad I was “alone.”

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the issues of disrespect aromantics face, however they are not alone.

There are allies who stand with the aromantic community but, even they can make mistakes. However, the important thing is when mistakes are made they are corrected and people can hold each other accountable. AUREA is among many useful sources to start learning about being an ally to the aromantic community.

The Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week website celebrates and raises awareness of aromantic and aro-spec identities.

A Carnival of Aros isa blogging site that collects and publishes submissions around the topic of aromantic and aro-spec identities.

Aro Worlds is another blogging website about aromantic and aro-spec narratives, as well as related creative and writing projects like patches or essays.

The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project, holds talks relating to not only asexual and aromantic advocacy, but also how and why aromantic and asexual identities are discriminated against in a society dominated by white supremacy.