Asexuality naturally destabilizes those divisions, and so the asexual community often has to search for alternate relationship labels. The rather clumsy "queer-platonic relationship" has been used, but it's not the most user-friendly term.
At the end of a tough day, “just friends” might simply hug, whereas a queerplatonic couple is more likely to crawl right into bed together without thinking twice. Think Hannah and Marnie from Girls rather than Rachel and Monica from Friends. The former pair's friendship is an excellent example of a queerplatonic relationship, even if they might not label it that.
Outside the romantic paradigm, some people form what they’re calling “queerplatonic” relationships. The word indicates nothing about the gender of the participants, but speaks to the desire to “queer” our understandings of platonic friendships. These are relationships of care — “life partnerships” that go quite beyond what most of us consider ordinary friendship. Many sexually ambiguous literary or onscreen relationships — think Frodo and Sam, Holmes and Watson, Thelma and Louise — can also be read as queerplatonic.
2013, Anonymous, "The 'A' in LGBT", Counterpoint (Wellesley College), Volume 35, Issue 1, September 2013, page 8:
After feeling these concerns, I was happy to learn about squishes and queerplatonic partners (also known as zucchinis, for some reason unclear to me).
2016, Ella Pye, "Jill Sobule and Four Other Torture Devices", in The Full Spectrum: A New Generation of Writing about Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities (ed. David Levithan), page 286:
I invited my ex-queerplatonic partner over after our first year of college and broke the news to him that I'd been talking about our relationship to other people.
2019, Julie Sondra Decker, The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality, unnumbered page:
The word queerplatonic is sometimes controversial because some say there is nothing "queer" about essentially having a best friend, but people in queerplatonic relationships may not feel comfortable describing their partnership as friendship, and their lifestyle is often mistaken for romantic from the outside.
2019, Cassandra Snow, Queering the Tarot, pages 7-8:
My own queerplatonic partner is the most significant person in my life, even though we do both date and have sex (just not with each other), and the idea that all types of healing and loving relationships can be equally important comes through throughout the book.
2020, Mia Birdsong, How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community, unnumbered page:
Anyone of any sexual orientation, gender, or other relationships status can be in a queerplatonic relationship.
