So I was recently reading about the lgbt+ movement because I’ve only recently embraced my pride. But anyways I’ve always been confused on pansexuality, what it was and what made it different. After researching it more I was even more confused. Here’s why... The entire lgbt+ community is solely moved to normalize and fight discrimination and boxing people into gender and sexual norms. So the idea of pansexuality confuses me. It seems as if the community who fights discrimination every day is just contradicting itself with pansexuality. If the idea of pansexuality is that one loves all genders then wouldn’t that just make them bi. I mean hear me out, if we are accepting trans women and trans men as true women and men (which we do) then why should we make a whole other sexuality that just separates their gender identity. Trans women ARE women, trans men ARE men, so if you can love both men and women (which includes ALL trans) that makes you bi, not pan. I’m not just saying pansexuality is invalid or wrong and I’m definitely not speak against anyone or fighting someone’s identity. I’m saying that I don’t understand it. This may be just because of my own ignorance of the community that I’ve newly entered or there’s something that needs to be talked about. Help me out.
It's basically a label du jour that's catching on. The idea is basically if you are bisexual, you love men or women, but if you are pansexual, you have absolutely no preference for any particular gender. Pretty subtle difference that really doesn't make any difference to anyone except those who use the label.
Pansexuality just includes nonbinary people (those who identify as something between male and female). If someone is attracted to men and women they are bi no matter if those men and women are cis or trans just like a gay man is still gay if he likes transmen. I understand the confusion though. Also, thanks for being there for us transpeople I am propably pansexual but I call myself bi because everybody understands what it means and to me those two overlap a lot.
Hello, bisexual nonbinary person here. I'm glad that you're coming to learn more about it for yourself, we need more people like you. Believe me, there's lots to be confused by. I'll give an examples of (how I define) being bisexual vs pansexual. My brother and dad are both straight. My brother has very specific types of women he's attracted to, while my dad only cares about the connection he has with the women. That's basically how bi and pan are different. Bi people have certain types for certain genders, while pan people only care about the connection. However, these rules can bend. Bi people can date someone that's not their type and pan people can have certain types of people they're attracted to. But the other factor powers over more. It's not to say one is better than the other, it's just how people feel attraction. There's no wrong way to go about it. Hope my answer helps haha.
Thanks, this helps a lot and now I understand. Websites don’t explain as well as an actual person who is in the community. There’s a thin line between them, but they are still different. And I’d stick up for trans again and again forever.
Individuals can still see it differently but usually nobody uses the label to exclude or include transpeople where it shouldn't matter at all. We do need to stand together. Being LGBT+ isn't always easy and there is a lot of unneccessary pain and shame involved.
In essence they are the same. People say pansexual means being attracted to all genders, including nonbinary, while bisexual means only being attracted to two genders. However, nearly every bi person I’ve come across have expressed attraction to both genders as well as nonbinary. I like how the OP put it, that trans women and men shouldn’t be put into a separate box of a “third gender” because we’re not.
from what I understand, a pansexual person is the person who doesn't really pay attention to people's genders, so they can fall for anyone regardless of their gender, biological sex etc. and it includes nonbinary genders, while a bisexual person is a person who likes both men and women. what someone explained to me long ago, bi people like both sexes, and pan people like people. that's it I guess.
A way one of my "sexpert" friends described it as there being 2 original genders (tread lightly here) male, and female. Bisexuals are attracted to both. Pansexuals however, are attracted to ALL genders. Binary or nonbinary. But that's not coming from an lgbt person, so it could be wrong.
