LGBTQIA. Most people have heard of that acronym in one form or another. Usually, it's shortened to LGBT or LGBT+. But do you know what each letter stands for? Well, if you don't know, it stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Asexual/Aromantic.

"What?!" you cry. "The 'A' stands for 'Ally!!'" Nope. Sorry, allies, the A is not for you.

Asexuality is the lack of sexual attraction. I, myself, am asexual, so I will mostly focus on that in this article. This doesn't mean that I reproduce like bacteria or plants. It also doesn't mean that I'm incapable of love. It simply means that I don't get all hot and bothered if I see someone attractive.

Aromantic is the same thing but towards romantic feelings. Someone who is ace (the nickname for asexuality) may also be aromantic (aro) so that means they wouldn't feel sexual or romantic attraction. They still feel love towards their family and friends, but they'd be perfectly content not dating or having sex.

On the flip side, aces and aros can have sex/date if they choose to, and having sex/dating doesn't make their identity less valid. Asexuality also has its own pride flag. It is a rectangle consisting of four stripes, from top to bottom black, grey, white, and purple.

Black represents asexuals, grey for grey-ace/demisexuals, white for allies, and purple for community.

Also on the asexual spectrum is demisexual which is not feeling sexual attraction until a deep emotional bond has formed. The aromantic spectrum equivalent is demiromantic.

Asexuality isn't a new thing. Alfred Kinsey was a biologist who studied human sexuality. He published what is now known as the Kinsey Scale, which, based on the answers given, can tell whether a person is "exclusively heterosexual" or "exclusively homosexual" or somewhere in between. He came up with the scale based on the data he received from his surveys for "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male" (1948) and "Sexual Behavior in the Human Female" (1953). He also noted that some people fall into what he called Category X, which meant people he surveyed felt no sexual attraction or connection to people of any gender.

The Asexuality Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) is a group that was founded in 2001 in order to promote public acceptance and discussion of asexuality. They work all over the world to publish pamphlets and other informational studies about asexuality.

It's estimated that 1 percent of the world population is on the ace-spectrum, which means if I did my math correctly, about 70 million people in the world are asexual. That means, there are more asexual people in the world than there are people in Canada.

Asexuality is a valid sexual orientation. We exist, and we have always existed. We need to raise awareness for asexuality. Growing up, I thought I could only be gay, straight, or maybe bisexual. I didn't know why I felt different than all my friends. Whenever the topic turned to who was "hot" I would always awkwardly shuffle and lie just so I wouldn't seem weird. If I had known asexuality existed, I would have identified as it a lot sooner than I did. Because before asexual, the word I identified as was "broken." This year, Asexual Awareness Week is October 19th-25th.

So yeah, the 'A' doesn't stand for "ally." It doesn't need to. Yes, I appreciate all the love and support allies give to the LGBTQIA community. But that letter belongs to me.