Amy Gahran, “Stepping Off the Relationship Escalator: Uncommon Love and Life”

Relationship discrimination

Here’s one way that the traditional pecking order for relationships becomes apparent: relationships which do not include sex, romance or family ties tend to get a diminutive label: “just” friends. This can seem like a rebuff not only to the power of friendship but also to people who are asexual or aromantic, whose deepest relationships often are dismissed or devalued.