"Asexuality as a sexual orientation reaches back to the first humans. But as an area of scientific study, it's relatively new. And its orientation cousin, aromanticism, is even newer on the scene: The first documented references to asexual-related behaviors appeared in the mid-19th century. One such reference came from Prussian human rights activist and journalist Karl Maria Kertbeny, in a 1869 pamphlet in which he coined the terms "homosexual" and "heterosexual." He referred to people who pleasure themselves primarily as "monosexuals.""
"writing of two longtime male patients with a condition he described as "original absence of all sexual desire." And in 1896, Magnus Hirschfeld, the German sexologist responsible for groundbreaking research on transgender identity, linked people without any sexual desire to the concept "anesthesia sexual" (or absence of sexual sensation). Hirschfeld's contemporary, Germanactivist Emma Trosse, came close around the same time to the term we use today when she described a "contrary-sexual" as "asensual.""
Asexuality as a sexual orientation dates back to the first humans, while formal scientific attention emerged much later. Aromanticism as a distinct orientation appeared even more recently, with early references to asexual-related behaviors in the mid-19th century. Historical figures such as Karl Maria Kertbeny, William Alexander Hammond, Magnus Hirschfeld, Emma Trosse, and Rev. Carl Schlegel used various terms—monosexuals, original absence of all sexual desire, anesthesia sexual, asensual, and asexual—to describe lack of sexual desire or sensation. Legal and social reactions shaped terminology. Lack of societal recognition hinders positive identity experiences for ace and aro individuals.
Read at LGBTQ Nation
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