Agentosexual

Agentosexual is a sexual orientation in which one experiences or has previously experienced control over one's sexual orientation, being able to change one's feelings of attraction at will to at any degree. The timing and degree of control are different for different people.

For example, a person who is gay one day and then is able to choose to be bisexual or asexual the next day would be agentosexual. They may also apply the prefix agento- to the specific sexual orientation they have chosen (in this case, agentobisexual or agentoasexual).

The control that an agentosexual person has over their sexual orientation is not necessarily reversible. For example, a person who identifies as agentobisexual could have chosen to become bisexual at a specific point in time, but they may not have any choice about whether or not to remain bisexual now. Alternateively, one may have a choice only under specific circumstances.

The control that an agentosexual person has over their sexual orientation does not necessarily have to be extreme enough to change the label that their sexual orientation is described by. For example, an omnisexual person who is able to choose to be more attracted or less attracted to specific genders is agentosexual, even if they have always been omnisexual, always will be omnisexual, and do not have the ability to stop being omnisexual. Agentosexuality is defined by having at least some control over the orientation of one's sexual attractions, not necessarily by the ability to change sexual orientation labels.

Some agentosexuals may experience control over their position on the asexual spectrum, while others may experience control over which gender(s) they are attracted to. Some agentosexuals may experience control over both, but this is not always the case.

Agentosexuality can be considered subset of abrosexuality. However, agentosexuals do not necessarily feel that their sexual orientation remains fluid in the present; they may, in some cases, simply feel that they've been able to change their sexual orientation at some point in the past.

Choosing whether or not to act on one's sexual attractions, or choosing which sexual attractions to act on, is not agentosexuality. Agentosexuality is defined as having at least some control over who one feels sexually attracted to or whether or not one feels sexually attracted.

Gallery[]

The agentosexual flag was created by Gayle Madwin of QueerByChoice.com and was first posted on the Queer by Choice mailing list on June 23, 2022. It uses the same colors as the abrosexual flag, but the stripes are aligned vertically rather than horizontally. According to the discussion when the flag was first posted, the change in direction of the stripes is meant "to represent turning our own sexual orientations and/or other people's ideas about them 'on their head,' countering the general direction of things, and also launching ourselves upward, symbolizing successful achievement of our desired change in sexuality and/or gender."^[1]

Further discussion on the mailing list suggested that a comparable rotation of any pride flag 90° counter-clockwise and a swap between the height and width measurements could represent appending the prefix agento- to the identity represented by that pride flag. Some such flags are shown below. (The same 90° counter-clockwise rotation is also used for agentogender pride flags, which represent the experience of having (or having had) at least some degree of control over one's gender identity.)

Etymology[]

The prefix agento- is derived from the word agentic, meaning "(something) that behaves like an agent: able to express or expressing agency or control on one's own behalf".

Sexuality Wiki

Agentosexual

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