Supporting asexual-spectrum survivors of sexual violence

This website is an extension of Resources for Ace Survivors, a project for helping asexual-spectrum (ace) or questioning people who have experienced sexual violence, founded by Queenie in May 2013. It spun out into a tumblr blog in February 2014, and has since grown to become a much larger collaborative project run entirely by and for asexual survivors of sexual violence. We welcome all survivors here, no matter what your personal experience has been like. You may feel like your experiences don’t “count,” but that is not true. You matter. Your experiences matter. We want to help you.

How you can help

We also need your help. There’s a lot of work to be done. We are building a whole community, here! Here are some things you can do to help out:

• Write for us. We need both static web pages and blog posts. To go alongside the RFAS tumblr, we will be launching a new WordPress multi-author blog. You can either contribute a guest post, or you can join our team to write regularly. Details here.
• Send us some of your artwork or photography related to processing or recovering.
• You can volunteer to talk to other survivors about their experiences when they need someone to listen. More details here.
• Send us pamphlets, links, or other resources we can host here to educate people who support survivors—therapists, partners, friends, family, crisis center workers, or other advocates. Things like advice on how to give a workshop for individual activists are welcome, too.
• Affiliate with us if you are part of another organization dedicated to providing resources for survivors, asexual-spectrum people, queer people, or any intersection thereof. We are especially in need of affiliates based in countries other than the U.S.

We have several other projects in the works that need more time to develop before we go public with them. If you’re interested in finding out how else you can contribute, or if you have ideas for a project that you’d like to do, please contact us!

All survivors welcome

There is no one single narrative or way that sexual violence happens. It affects each of us differently. There are many ways to recover, and many different kinds of barriers to recovery. We are committed to diversity, because we understand that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. The more perspectives we are able to present, the better.

We realize that not everyone who has experienced sexual violence identifies as a survivor. Some people prefer to counter victim-blaming by strongly asserting that they are victims—of a crime committed by another person, not some sort of natural disaster. We want you to know that this is a completely valid choice. We’ve gone with “survivor” because it’s the most widespread term, but it’s totally fine if you don’t like to think of yourself that way. In fact, we’d love to explore that with you, if you’re up for writing about it.