“Anytime.”
“Time for pizza?” Max asks as he sticks his nametag on his shirt:Max, he/him.
“Yes, please,” Theo replies.
I choose not to make a nametag. I’m not here to socialize, I remind myself. This is for Theo and Max. I’m here for moral support. Nothing more.
The three of us grab our pizza and find a small table to huddle around as we eat. Max, however, ends up in a conversation with another short-statured student with cobalt hair and multiple facial piercings. His nametag reads “Greer, he/they,” and he’s wearing a transgender bead bracelet, too. He also has one I don’t recognize—pink, yellow, and blue. Interesting.
I take this opportunity to curiously glance around the room at other people’s bracelets, names, and pronouns. “Ash, they/them” has two unfamiliar bracelets. “Bailey, she/they” has a nonbinary and bisexual bracelet. “Jackie, any” has a bisexual bracelet and one I don’t recognize. “Mal, they/them” has a nonbinary bracelet, and that pink, yellow, and blue one that Greer has. “Alex, he/him” only sports a gay-male pride bracelet. “Sarah, she/her” only has the one made of pinks, oranges, and white. I have to do a double-take when I see “Raven, xe/xyr,” certain that I misread the pronouns. That individual has three bracelets, and I can’t identify any of them.
Damn. I have a lot more to learn than I thought.
“Hi, I’m Quinn!”
I turn to find that Theo has been replaced by a cheery student wearing an EQA Volunteer t-shirt. She has wavy, shoulder-length, chestnut hair with red under shades, soft brown eyes, and a septum piercing. Her nametag says “Quinn, she/her”, and she’s donning a single bracelet with purple, black, white, and gray beads.
“Hi, Quinn. I’m Oliver.”
“Nice to meet you, Oliver! Welcome to EQA! Is this your first meeting?”
I grin. “Is it obvious?”
Quinn shakes her head, her curls bouncing playfully around her round face. “Only because I don’t recognize you. I’ve been a member for two years, and I’m really good with faces.”
“Wow, two years?”
“I know. Crazy, right?”
“You must really enjoy the Alliance then, huh?”
Quinn’s eyes light up even brighter. “I love this community with all my heart. I’ve made so many friends here, learned a lot, and helped with fundraising and activism. This group has seriously changed my life for the better.”
“Wow.” The purple beads of her bracelet catch my eye again, and I tilt my chin towards it. “Is that one of the bracelets from up front?”
“Oh, yes! I’m actually one of the ones who makes them.” She glances at my bare wrists and frowns. “We didn’t run out already, did we?”
“No, no, there were plenty. I’ve honestly never seen so many different color combinations. Are they all pride flags?”
Quinn nods. “Yep! We try to include flags from all the different sexualities, gender identities, and expressions, as well as just general rainbows for anyone who doesn’t want to get too specific.”
“Cool! Yeah, my buddies I came with grabbed a couple.” I rub my naked wrist apologetically. “I didn’t—I mean, I just wanted to make sure there was enough for everyone.”
“Oh, trust me, there are,” Quinn insists. “And if there aren’t, my buds and I have more. Making those bracelets has become one of my favorite stress relief activities.”
“That’s cool,” I repeat, still eyeing hers specifically. “So, can I ask which flag that one represents?”
Quinn beams. “Absolutely! It’s the asexual flag colors: black, gray, white, and purple.”
Asexual.I turn the word over in my head. I’ve heard it before, of course—and not just in biology—but I guess I didn’t realize it was part of the queer community. “So, you’re asexual?”
“I am!”
I chew on my bottom lip for a moment before asking. “I’m going to sound like an idiot, but…what exactly does being asexual mean?”
“You don’t sound like an idiot at all! Being asexual can mean a lot of different things to different people, but the general definition of asexuality is experiencing little to no sexual attraction to any gender.”
Something deep in my chest loosens. “Huh.”
