Asexuality - Notable Asexuals

Notable Asexuals

• Edward Gorey, writer and illustrator. Gorey never married or had any known romantic relationships and responded to an interviewer's questioning of his sexual orientation with, "I'm neither one thing nor the other particularly ... I am apparently reasonably undersexed or something." He agreed with the interviewer's suggestion that the "sexlessness" of his books was "a product of his asexuality".
• Keri Hulme, author of The Bone People, winner of the 1985 Booker Prize, discussed asexuality and her involvement with AVEN in a 2007 interview.
• Bradford Cox, an American musician, leader of the bands Deerhunter and Atlas Sound.
• Emilie Autumn, an American singer-songwriter, poet, and violinist who is best known for her wide range of musical styles and her usage of theatrics.
• Tim Gunn, an American fashion consultant and television personality. He considers himself asexual and has not had a boyfriend since 1982.
• Janeane Garofalo, an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist and writer, has described herself as asexual. During her filmed stand-up show in Seattle, she brought up her ten-year, celibate relationship with her boyfriend.
• J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan.
• Kenji Miyazawa, Japanese poet and novelist.
• Paula Poundstone, stand-up comedian.
• Cecil Rhodes, namesake of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and founder of De Beers. Biographer Antony Thomas has suggested that Rhodes was asexual.
• Anne Widdecombe, British retired politician and novelist. She has never married, has no children, and refused to answer a journalist's question about her sexuality on BBC Radio 4, stating it was "nobody else's business". Writing for The Guardian, John O'Farrell suggested advertising agencies should use an image of Widdecombe to target asexuals.
• Kenneth Williams, comic actor and comedian, regularly wrote diaries, which were anthologised by Russell Davies. He lived alone for his entire adult life, and his diaries record very few sexual experiences in his lifetime, with none after his 40s.

Fictional characters and persons

• Rudy Waltz from Kurt Vonnegut novel Deadeye Dick.
• Brian Lackey from the film Mysterious Skin, whose asexuality is associated with (though not definitively caused by) repressed childhood abuse.