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hellomynameisbisexual · 2 years

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Pansexuality as a sexual orientation is a quickly growing identity. Blossoming in popularity since the 2000s, most familiar with it today consider it a new, more subversive version of bisexuality that uniquely includes transgender and nonbinary people.

That’s a problem for three main reasons.

No sexuality inherently excludes transgender or nonbinary people.

“Transgender” and “nonbinary” are merely umbrella terms that describe different relationships to one’s assigned sex. “Transgender” is not a gender — a transgender wo/man is just as fe/male as a cisgender one — and “nonbinary” is not just one gender. Anyone can date a nonbinary person. Just because some gay men say they’re only attracted to cisgender men doesn’t mean that gayness is “attraction only to cisgender people of the same gender.”

Bisexuality isn’t limited or inherently distinct from pansexuality. We’ve been saying bisexuality is broad, non-binary, and all-encompassing since the 1970s. As the American Institute of Bisexuality tells us, bisexuality “is inherently inclusive of everyone, regardless of sex or gender.” Further, virtually every explanation given for how it’s inherently different from pansexuality ignores the experiences of people with both identities.

Almost every modern description of pansexuality not only denies this history but bases itself on — and perpetuates — the misconceptions listed above, if not other forms of bigotry.

The “Pansexual” Label: A(n Abridged) Timeline

Here, I exclusively look at the word “pansexual” when it’s used as a human sexual orientation and a clear description of its meaning (and/or a contrast with bisexuality) is also given; for further brevity’s sake, I only include direct quotes. For a more in-depth look at the history of this word, click here (I compare historical and modern definitions of bisexuality and pansexuality here). Click on each year for sources. Sources that direct to scientific journals behind paywalls can be fully accessed via a Sci-Hub URL. Access to old New York Times articles may require an account.

1970s

1973: “…all my friends had been what I would call pansexual, avoiding the older term bi-sexual, which is meaningless when you can count more than two sexes.”

January 1974: “A psychiatric profile labeled [Alton Coleman] a ‘pansexual, willing to have intercourse with any object … man, woman, child, whatever…’”

April 1, 1974: “Whether you call a person who is able to have sex with a male or female bisexual, AC-DC, a switch-hitter, ambisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, or, in Freud’s words, ‘polymorphous perverse,’ his or her sexual persuasion is certainly nothing new.”

April 16, 1974: “Going bisexual, are we? It’s a mere beginning, a mere toe‐dipping into the great blue waters of erotica. I know what comes next season. It’s pansexuality. How’s that for loving? Jonquils, lovebirds, trained seals, the whole rich range of our furred and feathered friends.”

August 1974: “The prefix ‘pan’ means that you’re open to all kinds of sexual experiences, with all kinds of people. It means an end to restrictions, it means you could relate sexually to any human being…”

1980s

1982: Rita Mae Brown says she was kicked out of her university for her “pansexuality,” as she put it. “I was open to loving anybody… ‘I don’t care if I fall in love with a black or a white or a man or a woman or an old or young person. I just care that they have a good heart…’”

Late-1980s*: “Coming out as bisexual in the late 80s, when I first came across the label pansexual it didn’t involve any kind of gender nuance: it was how someone explained their bisexuality feeling interwoven with their Pagan beliefs.”

1986: “Colette (1873–1954) possessed pansexual appetites, failing to discriminate between male and female, old and young, so long as the flesh moved her.”

*The quote itself is from 2015.

1990s

Unspecified year*: “Given that many trans people did not fit neatly into the commonly understood confines of bisexuality, there was a strong desire from trans communities for a term that more accurately reflected both the desires of trans people and the desires of people who were attracted to both trans and cisgendered people. From this desire for a new and more inclusive term, both pomosexuality and pansexuality emerged.”

*The quote itself is from 2016 but discusses the early 1990s.

1990: “Pansexual: Two definitions are floating around now-a-days: 1) One who recognizes that one’s sexual capabilities transcend humanity; that inanimate objects, animals, plants, and concepts can also be sexually exciting, or 2) One whose sexual interests include people who are gender minorities, i.e. not male or female… Since the second of these definitions is usually implied by the word Bisexual, I think that the first is more useful.” (The term “gender minority” here seems to refer to intersex people.)

1997: “The term pansexual attractions is a liberating and newly coined reference to individuals who are primarily attracted to all individuals and all sexes.”

1998: “Some have proposed the term ‘pansexual’ as more inclusive than bisexual… is ‘bisexual’ limiting because it implies only two, fixed genders?”

May 1999: “A newer term, pansexual, has been adopted to include transsexuals and all other persons whose gender, sexual orientation, and affective orientation do not coincide with societal norms.”

June 1999: “Pan-sexual — Lacking highly specific sexual orientations or preferences; open to a range of sexual activities.”

2000s

2000: “‘I consider Little Richard to be the most famous pansexual,’ said Leon. ‘He was not about genders. He was about beautiful and not beautiful. If there was a cute boy and a homely girl, he’d talk to the boy. If the girl was pretty, he’d talk to her.’”

2001: “I don’t identify as bisexual for a few reasons… I firmly believe there are not two genders. So identifying as bisexual is counterproductive to my gender politics. So when people ask me, ‘Are you bisexual? gay?’ I’m like, ‘I’m equal opportunity. I sleep with people of all genders.’ … I identify with pansexual.”

May 2002: “Bisexuality identifies persons who are attracted to women and men, to varying degrees. Pansexuality or polysexuality represents the broader sense [of] attraction to persons of diverse gender attributes. For example, a pansexual woman may be attracted at times to some biological women, to biological men, and to some transgender women[.]”

June 2002: “Pansexuality includes all kinds of sexuality that can exist in a human being, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transexual, transgender, heterosexual…”

June 12, 2002: “[P]ansexual (a person whose sexual feelings and behaviors are fluid, ranging from heterosexual to bisexual to homosexual).”

June 13, 2002: “Pansexuals love people of all genders, male and female, but unlike bisexuals, pansexuals love transgendered, androgynous and gender fluid people, people who don’t fit into the categories of male or female.”

2003: “…pansexual men who like sex and do not care whether their partners are men or women.”

February 2003: “Pansexual or Pan: is used to describe anyone romantically and sexually attracted to people of all genders.”

March 2003: “…someone who is bisexual is attracted to both men and women. But how do we define a trans person’s own sexual attractions, as well as those of someone who is attracted to a trans person? …Current models of sexuality and language are slow to embrace the diversity in gender and gender identities, and to include trans people and their experiences. Additional sexual orientations that may speak to this are the terms: omnisexual (omni is from Latin origins meaning all), and pansexual (pan is from Greek origins meaning all). Thus, someone who is omnisexual or pansexual can be attracted to all genders, or a variety of gender identities.”

April 2003: “Pansexual is a person who is open to sexual activity of many kinds; pansexual people espouse their freedom of choice and imagination in sexual relations, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

May 2003: “Pansexuality is a neologism that expresses essentially the same concept as bisexuality. The difference is that it refers to someone who is attracted to all sexes/genders, rather than both sexes, so a pansexual could be sexually attracted to a transsexual, for example.”

December 2003: “[B]eing pansexual means that you identify as having a sexual orientation towards all people potentially. It is a much broader term that would encompass being attracted to people who don’t identify as either male or female. It may also suggest that you acknowledge that you could be sexually aroused by a beautiful painting, or the sound of a babbling brook.”

2004: “Pansexual — A person who is sexually attracted to all or many gender expressions.”

January 2004: “[Robert Rauschenberg] ‘does not identify as homosexual… [Walter Hopps] described the artist as ‘pansexual.’ ‘He’s had intimate, long relationships with women, men, his beloved dogs and the very Earth itself[.]”

July 2004: “[P]olyamory (multipartner relations), pansexuality (openness to all forms of sexuality) and other forms of responsible nonmonogamy are being pioneered by bisexuals.”

2005: “The term ‘bisexual’ implies a sexual attraction towards people whose biological sex is different than and the same as one’s own. Since, however, there are more than two genders, some people do not self-identify as bisexual, finding themselves attracted to people across a spectrum of genders. These people have adopted different terms, including pansexual, a term that can also apply to people whose gender is fluid or who consider themselves genderqueer (or genderless).”

September 2005: “Pansexuality is a sexual orientation, distinct from bisexuality and characterized by potential aesthetic attraction, romantic love and sexual desire for anybody, including those people who don’t fit into the gender binary of male/female implied by bisexual attraction.”

November 2005:

The term pansexual refers to individuals that feel sexual attraction to an array of individuals regardless of sex, gender or gender identity. Bisexual was the previously accepted label for individuals attracted to either gender or gender identity, but the term pansexual allows for the fluidity of sex/gender. In acknowledging pansexuality one is recognizing that there may be more than two sexes/genders and their partners may be free in identifying themselves. An online dictionary states that adjective pansexual is defined as “equal acceptance of all major human sexual orientations and identities, including homosexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality, as well as transgender, transsexual and Intersex people.” The second use of the term is “a sexual orientation towards basically everybody, without the two-gender restriction implied by bisexual.” This term allows fluidity among gender identity and sexuality as well as sex.

May 2006: “Pansexuals are known as the most open-minded, non-judgemental, and fluid of sexualities. […] Pansexual men tend to enjoy any individual on the orientation spectrum, with a strong preference towards the feminine — be it a tran[s]sexual female, transgendered female, or female… A pansexual may be attracted to all genders and sexes, but has a strong preference toward transexual men, butch lesbians, intersexed persons, etc.”

September 2006: “Pansexuality: Is sexual attraction, sexual desire, romantic love, or emotional attraction toward people of any sex or gender identity. Individuals who are pansexual refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are insignificant or irrelevant in determining whether they will be attracted to others.”

November 2006: “Bisexual means someone attracted to both men and women. Pansexual means someone attracted to people of any gender at all.”

March 17, 2008: “Pansexual/omnisexual: Attracted to ‘people, not parts’. Used instead of ‘bisexual’ (because ‘bi’ means ‘two’, and there aren‘t two sexes/genders). Indicates the potential to be attracted to anyone regardless of their sex, gender identity, or gender expression.”

March 29, 2008: “Bisexual relies on two genders, and I don’t really believe in that anymore… So I think [identifying as pansexual/omnisexual] is more about saying it doesn’t really make a difference what their gender is, it’s more about who you’re attracted to.”

April 2008: “[P]ansexuality includes potential attraction to people (such as transgender individuals) who do not fit into the gender binary of male/female. […] “Pansexuality is inclusive of bisexuality (attraction to both males and females) but additionally includes attraction to other genders and sexes such as those identifying as transgender, genderqueer, bigender, intersex, or genderfuck.”

August 2008: “Fujiko, 36, described herself as ‘pansexual,’ meaning that she was open to different sexual orientations and gender identities in her sexual partners.”

October 2008: “Pansexual means an attraction to individuals of any of the five sexes (male, female, intersexed, transsexed)*; additionally, it is a term which goes beyond the self orientation identity of bisexual to include the orientation of transensual [i.e., ‘sexually and/or romantically attracted to transpeople. A form of sexual orientation distinct from hetero-, homo- or bisexual.’].”

2009: “Whereas bisexuality implies a dichotomy, pansexuality suggests the possibility of attraction to a spectrum of gender identities.”

*This is not a typo; the original text only names four sex categories.

2010s

2010: “PANSEXUALITY: attraction and/or sexual preference to males, females, and those who do not fall inside the gender or sex binary. Attraction ‘regardless of sex/gender’, or specific attraction to varied sex/gender spectrum… Alternative: omnisexuality.”

April 2010: “[Polysexuals] do not wish to be known as bisexual as it implies that there are only two binary sexes… Pansexuality- Is the sexual attraction towards people regardless of gender[,] also known as omnisexuality[.]”

September 2010: “Pansexuality recognizes that there are more than just the two distinct genders and that gender identity and expression are flexible and fluid… This flexibility allows people to develop physical and emotional relationships not only to men and women, but also to transsexuals, androgynes, and transgender individuals who do not conform to conventional gender identities.”

2011: “Pansexuality describes a sexual orientation wherein a person has the ability to be attracted to a diverse range of people across sex and gender spectrums. Pansexuals describe their attraction as different from bisexuality, which only considers the gender binary — if you are bisexual, by definition you are attracted to either men or women. Thus it is often claimed that pansexuals are ‘gender blind’…”

December 2011: “Bisexual– Interested in both sexes. Pansexual– Interested in any combination of sexual and gender perception and expression.”

August 2012: “[T]hough many might describe [Mary] Gonzalez’s orientation as bisexual, pansexuals [like Gonzalez] don’t believe in a ‘gender binary,’ and hence can be attracted to all gender identities. […] ‘As I started to recognize the gender spectrum and dated along the gender spectrum, I was searching for words that connected to that reality, for words that embraced the spectrum. At the time I didn’t feel as if the term bisexual was encompassing of a gender spectrum that I was dating and attracted to.’

December 2012: “Some transgender individuals identify as pansexual rather than bisexual, as bisexual presumes two genders.”

February 2013:

pansexuality differs from bi-sexuality, as the understanding of attraction is not limited to dualistic social constructions of male/female and man/woman. […] This rejection of the gender and sex binaries was also apparent in the way in which they related their pansexuality to bisexual and monosexual orientations. Respondents suggested that pansexuality could be seen as an ‘advanced’ version of bisexuality; one that has a broader scope for attraction[.]

[…] [R]esearch respondents also suggested that bisexuality invested in gender and sex binaries, and therefore was different than pansexuality. When asked whether being pansexual was different from being lesbian, gay or bisexual, respondents situated their pansexual orientation in contrast to these other orientations, mainly in terms of rejecting binaries of gender and sex[.]

November 12, 2013: “[P]ansexuals may be attracted to those of all biological sexes or gender identities — including men, women, those who don’t identify with a specific sex or gender or those who are transsexual or transgender. This differentiates pansexuality from bisexuality, which denotes attraction to people of just two different sexes — male and female.”

February 2014: “Pansexuality encompasses attraction to members of all sexes and gender identities. It is broader than bisexuality, which implies that one can only be attracted to biological males and females.”

November 12, 2014: “[S]omeone who identifies as pansexual, no matter what their gender or sex is, can potentially be attracted to cis men, intersex men, trans men, agender people, genderqueer people or any other non-binary person, trans women, intersex women, cis women, or any other combination of sex, gender, and gender performance.”

November 12, 2014: “Sometimes referred to as omnisexual, pansexual describes an attraction to a person regardless of sex or gender. People who use this label may describe themselves as ‘gender blind’ or as being attracted to a person’s personality rather than his or her sex. The term also acknowledges a space for intersexed and transgendered people in an otherwise binary understanding of sexuality and gender.”

February 2015:

Pansexuals are attracted to males, females, and then they may be sexually attracted to individuals who identify as intersex, third gender, androgynous, transsexual, and many other sexual and gender identities. The topic of pansexuality is not only controversial to the general public, but to the bisexual community as well. The bisexual community argues that bisexuality is already inclusive of any and all genders and sexes. […]

The pansexual and bisexual community strongly distances [sic] themselves from each other. They have their own different flags, colors, and ideologies. In short, pansexuality is more accommodating for all and any gender[s], while bisexuality is more directed towards just males and females and being attracted to either or both. Aside from who pansexuals are attracted to, they also see gender and sexuality differently. More specifically, they do not see it… A pansexual individual is attracted to a person, not a gender. It seems very similar to bisexuality. BUT, bisexuality, for the most part does not include genders aside from male and female, which is what the main difference is with the two.

November 2015: “In response to the question: ‘What does pansexual mean?’ I’ve seen countless people reply: ‘I’m attracted to people of more than two genders. Not bisexual.’ […] I also frequently see cisgender pansexuals managing to be both transphobic and biphobic in their definitions. They say pansexuals are different to bisexuals because pansexuals are attracted to ‘men, women and transgender people,’ as if binary trans people aren’t really men and women, and bisexuals couldn’t possibly be attracted to them anyway.”

February 2016: “Bisexuality is generally defined as the sexual attraction to two genders: generally both men and women. Pansexuality, however, is the capability for sexual attraction regardless of gender identity. A person identifying as pansexual can be attracted to anyone of any gender or biological sex. In short, they do not need to know about how a person identifies in order to be attracted to them!”

March 2016:

Pansexual: A person who is romantically and/or sexually attracted to both men and women. A person who experiences sexual, romantic, physical, and/or spiritual attraction for members of all gender identities/expressions, not just people who fit into the standard gender binary.

[…]

A pansexual person can love not only the traditional male and female genders, but also transgendered, transsexual, cross-dressing, androgynous and gender-fluid people and all other variations of gender identification, including those who feel they do not have a gender. It is often confused with or included within the definition of bisexuality, but it is a more fluid and much broader form of sexual orientation in which the pansexual individual experiences sexual attraction towards members of all genders.

[…]

[P]ansexual[:] One whose sexual orientation includes all kinds of sexual expression and sexual relationships that can exist in humans.

July 2016: “For GSA members, bisexual and pansexual identity labels were not interchangeable terms; bisexuality was associated with the fe/male binary and pansexuality served as a personal contestation to this dichotomy.” One student said: “…if you say you’re bi, they’re like, ‘Oh, so you like both genders.’ And usually from there, I go off and I say like, ‘Okay, I will date transgender.’”

September 2016:

Virtually all of the data points we were able to identify had an element of comparing bisexual and pansexual identities. Most identified pansexuality as a subset or component of a bisexual identity, “Pansexual people are bisexual, in-fact; however, bisexuality does not place the same emphasis on sexual and gender identity awareness, but more simply indicates attraction to the two (generally accepted) biological sexes.” Some discuss the difference between the two as focused on gender, such as this statement: “It’s different from bisexuality. Bisexuality refers to people attracted to men and women. With more people identifying across the gender spectrum between men and women, pansexuality has emerged as a catch-all that includes everyone else.”

2017: “Bisexual is typically defined as a sexual orientation marked by attraction to either men or women. This has been problematized as a binary approach to sexuality, which excludes individuals who do not identify as men or women. Pansexual is a sexual identity marked by sexual attraction to people of any gender or sexuality.”

May 2017: “Pansexuality: Is sexual attraction, sexual desire, romantic love, or emotional attraction toward people of any sex or gender identity. Individuals who are pansexual refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are insignificant or irrelevant in determining whether they will be attracted to others.”

May 25, 2017: “[P]ansexual means that you are capable of being attracted to any and all genders. What makes it different to bisexuality is the acceptance that people exist outside the gender binary.”

October 2017: “Pansexual is basically a more liberal version of bisexual. It means you don’t care about someone’s gender or identity or sexuality, you just like them for them. For instance, I am dating a guy right now, but I would be open to dating a female, or someone who is transgender.”

2018: “I knew I was bisexual in highschool [sic], when I had crushes on both girls and boys. I figured out that I am pansexual when my husband transitioned to being my wife.”

April 2018: “A pansexual person is someone who is attracted to people of all genders — not just cisgender and transgender men and women, but nonbinary people, gender-nonconforming people, and anyone whose gender falls outside of the gender binary, or beyond traditional definitions of what it means to be a ‘man’ or ‘woman.’”

May 2018: “Bisexual folks are specifically attracted to men and women, often times for their gender presentation too. Pansexual individuals are attracted to everything and everyone. This includes non-binary people and all those other gender non-conforming folks. It makes more sense than being bisexual to me because it’s gender-inclusive.”

June 2018: “The meaning of pansexual is clear: someone who is attracted — either emotionally, physically or both — to all genders. This includes cisgender, transgender, agender and gender[-]nonconforming individuals.”

December 2018: “Gg, 21: ‘I [identify] as pansexual because when I am attracted to people it’s usually more down to their personality or attitude, not their gender or even their looks.’ […] Laura, 24: ‘I don’t care what their genitals look like. It’s the person I’m attracted to.’ […] Bronagh, 21: ‘Being pan is being attracted to someone’s personality over everything else such as looks.’”

2019: “No, bisexuality is so binary. Being pansexual means my sexual preference isn’t limited by gender identity… if you’re bisexual, you like tacos and burritos. But I’m saying I like tacos and burritos, and I could be into a taco that was born a burrito, or a burrito that is transitioning into a taco, comprende?”

2019: “A pansexual is someone who can be attracted to males, females, transgender people and those who identify as non-binary (not female or male).”

2019: “Bisexual — Attracted to the gender binary (male and female), but some use it to describe attraction to two genders, part of the gender binary or not… Pansexual — Attracted regardless of gender.”

February 6, 2019: Use of this term [pansexual] to describe one’s sexual identity indicates an active rejection of the gender binary and attraction to gender-diverse individuals (i.e., noncisgender: people who identify as a gender which does not align with their assigned sex at birth or identify with a gender outside of the gender binary).”

January 2019: “Just like bisexuality, pansexuals are sexually attracted to men and women. But the key difference is that pansexual people tend to consider themselves as more ‘gender fluid.’ They may also be drawn to those who identify as intersex, third-gender, androgynous or transgender.”

February 12, 2019: “People who are pansexual can be attracted to people who identify as male, female, androgynous, transgender, or intersex, taking it a step further than the traditional view of bisexuality.”

February 18, 2019: “But bisexual is more specific in that it refers to someone who is interested in both men and women. If you’re bisexual you are sexually drawn to people of both genders — you are not exclusively hetero- or homosexual. You are both. You are attracted to more than one gender. Pansexual is not the same thing. If you are pansexual you are attracted to people of all genders, not just male and female, and your attraction occurs regardless of gender identity.”

February 21, 2019: “When it came to fancying someone, I didn’t really think about what that person’s body was like or what it might be like to have sex with them, my view of a person was more complex. I also knew I felt especially attracted to people who were androgynous, as well as liking trans people. […] [My best friend told me that] pansexuality meant you could feel attracted to people of all genders — boys, girls, transgender people, non-binary people… A key characteristic of pansexuality is that pan people don’t really ‘notice’ gender; it doesn’t really cross their mind when experiencing attraction.”

March 12, 2019: “[P]ansexuality is not saying you’re attracted to gender or orientation, it’s saying you’re attracted to people, regardless of whether they’re a man, a woman, gender-expansive or transgender.”

March 17, 2019: “The term ‘bisexual’ can therefore be considered theoretically as reductive by some because it implies a binary term, the classic ‘man or woman.’ … On the other hand, the term ‘pansexual’ includes all genders and all sexes: man, woman, transgender, intersex…”

May 13, 2019: “[Pansexual] has since been adopted by some people as a more inclusive term than bisexual, a term that implies that there are only two genders (male and female). Pansexuals, on the other hand, can be attracted to transmen and women, intersex people, androgynous people, and cisgendered people, among others.”

June 8, 2019: “Pansexuality basically means it’s about hearts, not parts. It doesn’t matter if you’re male, female, trans male, trans female, nonbinary — everyone’s hot to me.”

June 11, 2019: “As a pansexual person, as well as fancying males, females, and other genders, I feel I experience sexual attraction differently to the average person. I never look at someone and think, ‘I wonder what it’d be like to fuck them? I wonder what their genitals look like.’ That thought doesn’t enter my head.”

June 25, 2019: “[P]ansexuality, which has come into wider use in recent years, intends to explicitly refer to attraction to all genders, not just cisgender people…”

July 11, 2019: “[A] pansexual person would be attracted to cisgender, transgender, gender nonbinary, genderfluid, and agender folks (a person who doesn’t identify with any gender).”

July 16, 2019: “Pansexuals are attracted to the person, not their physical form… [they] can sometimes think they’re just bisexual. It can take time for them to realize that their sexual orientation is all-encompassing. [Pansexuals can] love all people and don’t look at gender as being the most important aspect. [They] can be sexually and/or romantically attracted to someone who is transgender, non-binary, or gender fluid.”

2020s

2020: “Bisexuality is feeling attraction to people whether they are male or female. That’s important. It only is those two genders (some even say Bi only includes cis-gender, [but] that’s not the point). Pansexuality is when it doesn’t matter what gender someone has.”

January 2020: “Often confused with bisexuality, pansexuality is where gender isn’t factored into attraction at all. In contrast, those who identify as bisexual are attracted to both genders.”

April 21, 2020:

[Danielle:] It never felt right for me to identify as bisexual. I know so many people who are asexual or two-spirited, and I’m open to being with someone who is trans. I never wanted to alienate anyone in my sexual exploration. Even though I have never been with anyone who is trans, I’m open to it. For me it’s more of a political decision. I think everyone, regardless of who they are with, should identify as pansexual.

[HB:] I had identified as bisexual for most of my life, but as an adult, I heard the term pansexual and I realized it was a more accurate description of the way I felt. I’d say the best definition would be that my sexual attraction is not based on gender assignment or gender expression. I am attracted to men and women as well as nonbinary people who don’t identify as either.

April 25, 2020:

Over the years, as we’ve grown together in our polyamory, I’ve reevaluated my sexuality and gender time and again. And I finally realized something: my attraction to folks has little to do with their gender presentation, and everything to do with their essence, their swagger. For lack of a better word, their “vibe.” Bisexual suddenly didn’t cut it. My sexual orientation was unfolding in a new direction: I began to identify as pansexual.

[…] While bisexuality’s definitions vary, the common thread is that a bi person’s attraction is influenced by gender. In a positive way, gender is still a factor that informs their attraction. Pansexuality, on the other hand, doesn’t hinge on gender, and our attraction to others has nothing to do with our own gender identity. In fact, while we can be deeply aroused by someone’s gender expression, it doesn’t factor into how or why we’re attracted to them. And unlike bisexuality, pansexuality doesn’t factor in your own gender identity. It’s not a matter of yearning after someone who looks like or feels like me.

May 2020: “While pansexuality is sometimes conflated or used interchangeably with bisexuality, some have distinguished between bisexuality as binary and pansexuality as non-binary.”

June 13, 2020: “The prefix ‘bi’ means two — Bisexual is attracted to both sexes by both men and women — Attractiveness is related to gender. The prefix ‘pan’ means everything — Pansexual is attracted to all, including transsexuals — Sex does not play any role.”

June 17, 2020: “Pansexuality means being romantically and/or sexually attracted to people regardless of their gender — including transgender and gender-nonconforming people.”

June 18, 2020: “Madison [Bailey] proceeds to explain that a pansexual person can be attracted to all different kinds of people, including ‘girls, boys, trans girls, trans boys, and nonbinary babies’. The term pansexual is viewed as being much more inclusive than ‘bisexual’, because it does not assume that a person is only attracted to men or women, but also those who don’t identify with a specific gender.”

Unknown Years

Unknown: “Pansexuals… may be sexually attracted to individuals who identify as male or female; however, they may also be attracted to those who identify as intersex, third-gender, androgynous, transsexual, or the many other sexual and gender identities. The latter distinction is what draws the line between pansexuality and bisexuality… Pansexual people are bisexual, in-fact; however, bisexuality does not place the same emphasis on sexual and gender identity awareness, but more simply indicates attraction to the two (generally accepted) biological sexes.”

Unknown: “Sexual orientation associated with desiring/loving a person’s personality primarily, and specific bodily features secondarily.”

Unknown: “Pansexual — sexual and/or emotional attraction without reference to gender or biological sex. The more commonly used term ‘bisexual’ limits those identifying with it to two genders or sexes, something pansexual’s [sic] reject.”

Unknown: “Pansexual — a person who recognizes more than two genders and can be drawn to a person of any gender identity or expression.”

Unknown: “Bisexual (n) - Individuals attracted to members of the male and female sex. […] Pansexual- A sexual orientation where a person desires sexual partners based on personalized attraction to specific physical traits, bodies, identities, and/or personality features which may or may not be aligned to the gender and sex binary.”

Unknown: “Being pansexual is all about being attracted to other humans without getting too hung up on what bits they’ve got, who they like to hook up with or how they define themselves. […] So those who identify as pansexual could be up for cuddles and stuff with someone who is male, female, transgender, intersex, agender, genderqueer, or any other gender identity or sex… The key difference with bisexuality is that it recognises those gender constructs. For example, a bisexual cis woman might be attracted to a cis man or woman, whereas a pansexual would be attracted to a cis person. That’s why some people use the term ‘gender blind’ to explain pansexuality.”

The Problem

As one (presumably vandalizing) contributor to a July 2012 update of pansexuality’s Wikipedia article puts it:

[A] particular dictionary definition of bisexuality is asserted and accused of championing the gender binary, then using that definition, pansexuality is claimed to be the only thing that covers individuals that don’t cleanly fit into either male or female. […] Since only a certain slanted reading of some dictionary definitions will support the necessity of pansexuality as a new orientation, and those definitions ignore both how bisexuals define themselves and what constitutes bisexuality anthropologically, there is a solid case against pansexuality being an additional sexual orientation.

The majority of provided descriptions of pansexuality demonstrate ahistorical and bigoted assumptions about bisexuality, on top of saying that attraction to transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people is exclusive to pansexuality. Some insist that pansexuals are “moving past” this bigotry, but considering how recent and widely-circulating some of these sources are, such a claim is extremely contestable. Articles written by pansexuals discouraging transphobic or biphobic descriptions of pansexuality are unfortunately either extremely rare or just nonexistent.

There will surely be people who believe I’m only misrepresenting history rather than simply compiling (almost) everything I find on this topic. However, the few other articles trying to shed light on this label (when searching for them, almost none discuss definitions with historical input) keep it considerably brief, hesitate to go into detail, cite very few (if any) sources, or even demonstrate the bigoted rhetoric that this article was made to shed light on (whether through the original content or the sources used).

For people who insist that “most pansexuals aren’t like this,” visit the comment section of virtually any pansexuality-related article, Instagram post, TikTok clip, YouTube video, tweet, you name it — and you’ll find the rhetoric in the timeline regurgitated. Transphobic and biphobic definitions are frequently found in scientific journals, (text)books, and from celebrities with massive platforms. If such instances were as rare as some people wish they were, this would be a very different article.

People tend to chalk down harmful rhetoric to just an exceptional “fraction of the community” instead of acknowledging the issue’s prevalency, which is an unhelpful deflection. The mindsets shown in the timeline were exhibited by many of the first to use “pansexual” as a sexual orientation, a trend that hasn’t stopped at all.

“Don’t all sexuality labels have transphobic origins?”

The terms “gay,” “lesbian,” “homosexual,” “straight,” “heterosexual,” and “bisexual” were not founded on the idea that transgender people are inherently a different gender than cisgender people or any other variation of claiming that transgender wo/men aren’t wo/men. Such implications are intrinsically and explicitly transphobic. Whether or not relatively archaic definitions of the aforementioned labels, like “attraction to the same sex,” are transphobic relies on individual interpretations of “sex,” whether they see it as interchangeable with gender and, if so, in what ways.

For instance, a cisgender gay man can interpret “attraction to the same sex” in at least three ways: 1) sex categories are biological and immutable once assigned at birth; → “attraction to cisgender men and transgender women,” 2) sex categories are biological but medically changeable → “attraction to cisgender men, transgender men who transition and transgender women who don’t,” 3) sex categories, biological or not, coincide with gender such that anyone who identifies as a man is — or at least should be considered — male, whether they transition or not → “attraction to men, regardless of any other factors.”

Even if other sexuality labels objectively had transphobic origins, though, the reasons their origins are issue-ridden are different than the reasons pansexuality’s origins are, so they’re not exactly comparable —critiquing other labels’ histories would focus on transgender exclusion rather than troublesome attempts at inclusion. Context is important.

“Well, you can’t blame how the label came into prominence.”

I agree that the pansexual label was inevitable as people were “discovering” and trying to conceptualize transgender identity during the mid and late twentieth century. Society ran on the “men are born with XYZ and keep it, women are born with ABC and keep it” notion for centuries, and only recently were people starting to create vocabulary for people who don’t fit this idea — which seemed, at the time, to represent entirely new gender categories since conceptions of gender were almost inseparable with those of the body.

Therefore, it’d be a bit foolish to fully blame the way pansexual orientation came about. It’s akin to referring to transgender people as “biologically [their assigned gender],” a typically clumsy and — to an increasing number of us — outdated way of making sense of the idea.

But this is also why it’s frustrating when this circumstance is used to defend its continued existence. Yes, the misconceptions that made pansexuality popular were “understandable,” but they’re still harmful (and, due to this label, likely far more widespread than they would be otherwise) misconceptions that should be considered outdated by now. The time for this label has passed. Should we go back to calling gender dysphoria “gender identity disorder” because we can realize why people believe it to be a disorder?

“Terms aren’t bigoted — only people are.”

The idea that words and phrases are never bigoted simply isn’t true. The n-word is an antiblack slur, “switch hitter” is a biphobic pejorative, and David Lane’s fourteen words (often shorthanded as the number 14) comprise a white supremacist slogan. Language does not exist in a vacuum.

Obviously, not every instance the word “pansexual” appears in is bigoted; its contexts in BDSM circles, pansexualism, or simply describing openness to various sexual activity have little to do with marginalized groups. I also don’t think that the word as an orientation, if it came about in a different way, would inherently be that bad. Unfortunately, however, with the way that it did, it’s undoubtedly troublesome.

Where Do We Go From Here?

The harm that the “pansexual” label has spread over the decades cannot be undone, nor can we truly remove the label from its past—the bigoted reasons people use for their pansexual self-identification today are the same as the ones used thirty years ago. But this isn’t a matter of which label came first; what’s important is that little has changed about pansexual orientation since its beginnings. The currently accepted and promoted vision of pansexuality remains bigoted.

If more of the first coiners and users of pansexual orientation acknowledged that pansexuality is the same as bisexuality and that bisexuality isn’t exclusionary, if pansexuality simply existed as a more explicit nod to nonbinary folks rather than a declaration that we’re outright reserved for pansexuals, the label would be far less problematic today. Unfortunately, this alternative timeline is simply not this one. Bisexual history was erased, our decades-old definitions were claimed to have never belonged to us, and new stereotypes were created and spread to fabricate a(n allegedly) fundamental difference between two synonymous labels. When bisexual, transgender, and nonbinary people express discomfort with the “pansexual” label, this is why.

I understand that many self-identified pansexuals will remain too attached to abandon the label (but I’m just saying, if “bisexual” had an extensive history of racism or ableism or whathaveyou that persisted to this day, I’d find another way to describe my sexuality). If you’re one of them, the very least you can do is work to prevent more damage from occurring (and maybe ask yourself what it is about the label that you find irreplaceable). If you’re cisgender, think about why you feel the need (or even have any authority) to defend an identity that — for at least thirty years — has based itself on the idea that other sexualities aren’t attracted to transgender or nonbinary people.

Our communities have been, and continue to be, profoundly and irreparably hurt by the rhetoric this identity virtually bases itself in. It needs to end.

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