Inspired by movements from the wider LGBT community, asexual youth around the world declared Friday, May 8 the first “Ace Day of Visibility.” The trend ended up continuing all weekend. By Sunday, over 3,561 new Tumblr posts had used either the #aceday or #AceDayOfVisibility hashtags, as well as over 5,500 posts on Instagram and another 5,300 posts on Twitter.

One of the most popular Ace Day posts was a series of selfies by Tumblr’s rising transgender cosplay icon, Ascher Lucas. This young makeup artist gained a devoted following by blogging whimsical photo shoots that defy gender categories. His popular post about identifying as asexual, after months of publicly campaigning to fund his transgender transition, epitomized the weekend’s discourse about distinctions between gender and sexuality.

Image via exodia.co

In addition to selfies, The Asexuality Blog also encouraged social media users to post images of playing cards to represent the diverse spectrum of asexuality. For example, the ace of spades signified a lack of sexual attraction to any gender, while the ace of hearts represented those who experience strictly emotional attraction to one or many genders. The growing trend of underage social media users wielding hashtags to claim their sexuality, creating queer discussion networks in the process, reveals how badly teens around the world crave opportunities for open discussion about the spectrum of sexual development. When sex education lags behind the social trends, digital media rises to fill the void.

Young Muslim female in Malaysia identifies herself as Demiromantic/Demisexual with an Ace of Diamonds Yesterday was ace day so i present to you!!! Demisexual diamond!! Ahaha #aceday A photo posted by (@_fayfayfay) on May 9, 2015 at 5:43am PDT

Young Brazilian couple shares their orientations Sim, existimos. No, no somos ETs. #AceDay #AceOfDiamonds #AceOfHearts A photo posted by Emanuel Morais (@egrilu) on May 8, 2015 at 8:09pm PDT

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