To be perfectly honest, I’m not an educator for allies. What I mean by that is that there’s these things you can go to and people tell allies how to go from ok allies to great ones, so here’s some aro-specific stuff for alloromantic (not aromantic spectrum) allies.
1. Tell everybody you know about aromantic awareness week. The week isn’t going to work if no one is aware of it, and you, as an ally, likely have a metaphorically louder voice. Especially tell your local lgbt group, help organize an event, etc.
2. Educate yourself. There’s going to be a glossary here, but there are already resources out there you can look for. Google’s your friend. Aromantic people know more about aromanticism than you, so listen to them.
3. Learn what amatonormativity is. It’s “the assumption that a central, exclusive, amorous relationship is normal for humans, in that it is a universally shared goal, and that such a relationship is normative, in the sense that it should be aimed at in preference to other relationship type” (x) and it’s super harmful to aromantic people (as well as anyone else that doesn’t want to form those sorts of relationships). Challenge the idea that romantic partners are “more than friends”, or that people are “just friends”, or that everyone wants to settle down and get married. Challenge the idea that love (because when people say love, they mean romantic love unless they’re qualifying it as otherwise) makes us human
4. Don’t say love when you mean romantic love, and celebrate and recognize other sorts of love.
5. Don’t conflate aromantic and asexual. They have similarities (not experiencing a particular kind of attraction) but are different things. Realize that aros aren’t a subset of aces, and aces aren’t a subset of aros.
6. If you see something that is harmful to aromantic spectrum people, call it out.
7. This isn’t a complete list. There’s regular ally stuff as well, which I haven’t gone over (like don’t speak over people and in general, don’t be awful) and there’s maybe some important aro-specific stuff that I’ve forgotten to put on here.
