In response to a student demand, this university’s Pride Alliance created a small group last semester focused on asexual and aromantic identities.

Ace Space is the first Pride Alliance group that specifically addresses issues among the asexual and aromantic communities. Prior to its creation in October 2014, Pride Alliance President Camille Veselka said students who identify as asexual or aromantic lacked a unique space to call their own.

“They were going to other groups trying to find something that vaguely matched what they were feeling,” the sophomore economics major said. “So we really saw a need for it.”

Asexuality is commonly defined as not experiencing sexual attraction, while aromanticism is defined as not experiencing romantic attraction, said Alexandra Kindahl, an Ace Space co-facilitator. But those terms can mean different things to different people, she said.

“Humans aren’t just black and white. It’s not a binary,” Kindahl said. “Things fall on spectrums.”

Kindahl, a freshman psychology major, went to the first Ace Space meeting. She previously attended Women2Women, another small group run through Pride Alliance, but she said it was not the right fit for her.

Ace Space provided Kindahl and other students the opportunity to discuss issues facing the asexual and aromantic communities with people who could relate to them, she said.

“People were like, ‘Oh my God, you’re like me. I understand you completely,’” said Rachel Twombly, a Pride Alliance small groups coordinator, “and [a lot of them] didn’t have that before except for on the Internet.”

Pride Alliance small groups discuss topics that range from everyday life and personal relationships to large social issues and questions about political representation, Veselka said.

Ace Space addresses a variety of subjects, including family life, sexual theory and identity labels, Kindahl said.

She said asexual and aromantic communities face the challenge of people ignoring them or denying their existence. She said some people are unaware of these identities, or people don’t believe they are real.

“Recently, I was talking to a family friend, and when I said that I was asexual, she was like, “Oh, well I call that young,’” Kindahl said.

The lack of awareness Kindahl has observed can lead to several misconceptions, she said.

Twombly said some people believe asexuality is the result of a mental or biological problem, while others think a life without sex is unfulfilled.

“That’s just not true for these people,” the sophomore psychology major said.

People might also believe asexuality and aromanticism are synonymous, but the two are not necessarily related and do not always occur together, Twombly said.

“They think asexual people are like off in a corner being alone, but [some of them] do have romantic relationships,” Twombly said.

Ace Space will hold its first meeting of the semester in the LGBT Equity Center. Kindahl said she hopes discussing asexuality and aromanticism will help to educate the greater population about these often-overlooked communities.

“The group is open to everybody. You don’t have to identify as asexual or aromantic and we encourage people who just are curious about learning more about the issues to come,” Kindahl said.