Graduate David Jay to Speak at Crossroads

April 8, 2015

On Friday, April 17, David Jay (Crossroads Class of 2000) will be giving a talk at Crossroads titled, “Redefining Love: How the Asexual Community Began In St Louis and Spread Across the Globe.”  We will gather at 5:00 in the library for a short meet and greet.  David will begin his talk at 5:15 followed by a question-and-answer session.  The event will end by 6:45.  Snacks and refreshments will be served.

David is currently co-leader of a team which develops next-generation smartwatch software at Samsung’s Global Innovation Center and chair of the board at the Asexual Visibility and Education Network. David lives with his partner and four friends in New York, where he enjoys cooking Matzoh ball soup.

David Jay is the founder of Asexuality.org, the world’s largest organization of people identifying as asexual and demisexual, where he works to promote open, honest dialogue about asexuality and give people on the asexual spectrum a safe space for self-exploration. He has been featured on CNN, the New York Times, 20/20, and in the feature-length documentary (A)sexual.  David is a gifted speaker and has spoken with our Social Justice group in the past and returns this year as a special speaker on the National Day of Silence.

From The Atlantic:

Jay launched the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), an online community dedicated to raising awareness of asexuality and providing support to people who identify as asexual, in 2001, when he was 18 and a college freshman. “I had spent the past four years struggling to realize that I was okay, and I didn’t want other asexual people to have the realize the same thing,” he says. The website soon became a rallying cry: first for hundreds, then thousands, and later tens of thousands of people who felt alienated from the sexual stories and imagery that dominate our culture.