NYC Pride recently announced that one of the grand marshals for its annual Pride March, which draws millions of spectators, will be an asexual activist.
Yasmin Benoit, an English lingerie model, spreads awareness about what she says are myths about the asexual community. She created the popular #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike. Benoit subversively accompanied the hashtag with photos of herself in lingerie.
ANNOUNCEMENT!
Asexual people belong at Pride. This year, we’ll be at the front of America’s biggest!
I’ve been chosen to be @NYCPride‘s first ever asexual Grand Marshal! It’ll be an honour to lead the march alongside Billy Porter in June! ????????️????#ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike pic.twitter.com/zOugf8RKc2
— Yasmin Benoit, MSc (@theyasminbenoit) May 20, 2023
Her inclusion as a grand marshal demonstrates the growing trend in the LGBTQ movement to celebrate all sexual expression outside of marriage between a man and a woman. In recent years, the LGBTQ movement has embraced (to varying degrees) polyamory, demisexuality, aromantic identities, autosexuality, reciprosexuality, lithsexuality, genderfae identities, BDSM, the “kink community,” and furries. (READ MORE: Notre Dame Goes All-In on Pride)
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PR for Asexuality
Benoit has made numerous media appearances in the leadup to her prominent position in New York City’s Pride March.
In one interview with the U.K.’s Independent, which was published Wednesday, she pushed back against the common perception that asexuality is “some new Gen Z thing that was made up on the internet and it’s just for kids that want to feel special.”
Benoit said that she began to believe she was asexual during “early puberty.” She once stated that she came to that conclusion at 9 years old.
“I realised I was asexual when everyone realised they weren’t, so pretty much early puberty,” she told the Independent.
Turning a Tumblr Trend Into an Accepted Identity
Benoit said one thing that was “kind of confusing” when she was a prepubescent child was that “all the information [on asexuality] seemed to exist on one corner of the internet and all seemed to be coming from pink-haired teenagers on Tumblr.”
In fact, only finding information about asexuality on Tumblr made Benoit concerned about the legitimacy of her identity. “I was thinking: if this is a legitimate orientation, then why isn’t it in schools, why isn’t it on TV, why is it just these British and American teenagers talking about it? It seemed a little suspicious.”
That feeling inspired her to become an advocate for asexuality’s legitimacy as a queer sexual identity.
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Benoit has gained significant prominence as an asexual activist. Recently, for example, the largest LGBTQ organization in Europe, Stonewall, announced a partnership with Benoit. The project will develop “a clear set of actions for policymakers, companies, and charities to better support ace people.”
In recent years, asexuality has been more commonly included as the “A” in the acronym “LGBTQIA+.”
NYC Pride Embraces Asexuality
In an interview published Thursday in PinkNews, Benoit said that the inclusion of an asexual grand marshal in the NYC Price March was a “long time coming.”
“It’s kind of like how has this never happened before?” asked Benoit. “How is this the first time that asexual people have been included here?”
Benoit said that there is “more momentum and more interest” when it comes to asexuality, but she feels she still needs to “prove that asexuality is a real thing and real orientation.”
She continued: “It’s not just the first three letters or the first four letters. We’re going beyond that and recognising that this is a legitimate orientation and that asexual people count as part of the community.”
In announcing her inclusion as a grand marshal, NYC Pride noted her “unconventional approach to activism” (perhaps referring to her tendency to use lingerie photos to disrupt ideas about asexuality) as well as her creation of an asexual bar with Budweiser.
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NYC Pride wrote, “Her unconventional approach to activism has attracted the attention of international press, she became the first asexual person to appear on the cover of Attitude Magazine, and she opened the world’s first asexual pop-up bar in partnership with Budweiser.”
New Vision of Pride
In the past, it was understood that no one is asexual because one’s capacity to reproduce is inherently bound up with one’s biological sex. In this way, the concept of asexuality disrupts the traditional understanding of maleness and femaleness.
It makes sense, then, that NYC is featuring asexuality prominently at this year’s Pride March. In the past, pride marches were mainly celebrations of gay and lesbian relationships. Now, however, so long as something subverts biological sex and monogamous heterosexuality, it’s included and celebrated.
At future pride marches, we can expect the inclusion of additional communities and identities that counteract traditional marriage in new ways.
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