#polysexual is the attraction to multiple genders but possibly not all

[doberbutts]

That post of yours also makes me think of how much exclusionist rhetoric is centered around the assumption that, for example, only people who are gay or lesbian are ever impacted by homophobia. That kind of thinking is not only incorrect, but also gives way too much credit to homophobes who do not, it turns out, have a nuanced and informed view of sexuality and gender.

Homophobes don't think in terms of "we are cis and allo and straight, and this other group is made up of people who are gay, pan, bi, ace, aro, trans, nonbinary, intersex, and any other number of labels under the queer umbrella". They think in terms of "we are normal and good, and this other group is different and bad."

I recall that one incident about the parents who kicked their asexual teenage son out of their home because they thought he was gay, and tons of exclusionists were insisting, "No, no, this isn't aphobia, this isn't discriminating against asexual people, this is misdirected homophobia, gay people are still the only ones being oppressed." Like, okay buddy, call it whatever you want, but this asexual teenager is still homeless now.

The sort of people who commit these hate crimes think in such rigidly binary terms. That man is attracted to men? It doesn't matter that he's also attracted to women, he's gay. That man doesn't want to have sex with women? It doesn't matter that he doesn't want to have sex with men either, he's gay. Oh, that man IS dating and having sex exclusively with a woman, but that woman was assigned male at birth? Gay. They're all gay, and we must hate them all for it.

Exclusionists will claim that ace people or bi people or trans people who don't medically transition or who are non-dysphoric aren't queer enough to be in queer spaces, don't face the same level of oppression, and meanwhile homophobes are more than happy to hate crime anyone who doesn't fit their narrow definitions of what is acceptable. The people who are beating up a man for being gay aren't going to stop upon being informed he's actually polysexual. They'll say "close enough" and continue beating him up.

Exactly. But then again many of these people refuse to consider a different perspective than their own.

I have an ace friend who, due to her solid lack of interest in men [or anyone] was assumed to be a lesbian by her boss. Her boss who turned out to be a sexual predator and preyed on three different female coworkers about her age [read: significantly younger than him] and was eventually fired for it. Her boss that, when she revealed she was dating a man at the time, admitted he had considered pursuing her as well but was discouraged by her lack of attraction and if he had known she could be "turned" he would have struck while the iron was hot, so to speak.

Is that not a combination of lesbiphobia, misogyny, acephobia, toxic masculinity? That he wanted this girl young enough to be his grand daughter to the point that he thought he could bully his way into her bed after seeing that she was not interested in being pursued? It doesn't matter that he was wrong about her being a lesbian. It doesn't matter that she could have just as easily been with a woman instead of a man. It doesn't matter that he doesn't have any understanding of the concept of asexuality. Here was a young woman who *could potentially* be swayed by power dynamics and/or alcohol, and thus she was added to his list of potential conquests.

Her identity, her feelings, her emotions, her life doesn't matter. What matters is that he was a predator and she was highlighted as possible prey the second he thought he might be able to convince her to accept his magic Dick Of Turning.

How do I know all this? He was my boss too. And I saw firsthand some of the things he did. Thankfully, as said, he was eventually caught in the act and fired for it, but not before he terrorized multiple female employees.

[masschase]

SR Show Your Flags- Day 4

OK this is probably going to be a brief one bc my current mood is not amazing.

I don't expect most people to be that excited about OC and OC but I FINALLY DREW MORI. He will get his intro post *eventually* and a proper drawing but just know that the answer to the questions "Who kept Stilwater under Saints control when the other lieutenants were in Steelport/DC?", "Who was Casey's best friend before Johnny Gat?" and "Who could possibly be a bigger conspiracy theorist than Kinzie?" is Mori.

Mori Alleyne (identifies as a man but also as genderqueer, polysexual- in his own words he's been attracted to multiple genders but doesn't know if he's met them all yet!) and Nessa Alleyne (omnisexual: she identifies this way because she's attracted to all genders but in distinct ways.) pictured in 2015.

Fun fact about them: OK I was totally wrong when I said Pierce is the first Saint to get married. I guess I just don't think about it bc it's 'offscreen'. Mori and Nessa sign up to the Saints around 2012-13 when they're more famous and have cleaned up their image a little. They get married in 2014, and have their daughter Faith in 2015.

Casey is a little shocked to find out about the latter two facts in 2016. The wedding invite was in the huge stack of paperwork she left in Stilwater when the Saints fed to Steelport. Mori knew she'd always been a commitmentphobe so just assume she was that anti-marriage she never RSVPed.

#pride month #sr 2023 pride thing #saints row #oc: moriarty “mori” alleyne #oc: vanessa alleyne #genderqueer #polysexual #omnisexual #stuff i drew

[mspec-culture-is]

Hi! I'm that anon from that post you reblogged yesterday. Do you have any advice about how a person attracted to men and nonbinary people (of all gender expressions not just masculine/androgynous nonbinary people) should identify?

However they feel fits?

You could call yourself bisexual; attracted to a gender (possibly) similar to your own and attracted to a gender (possibly) dissimilar to your own. You could call yourself polysexual; attracted to multiple genders, but not all. If you feel that you, yourself, are a man or nonbinary (or both) nothing stops you from calling yourself gay.

I’m sure there are more accurate labels, and I will do some more digging for you! However, the floor is more than open if anyone else can help :)

#mod Rob #gnc advice

[yutopia-eleftheria]

MHRiders Sexuality Headcanons 2/4

City of Fire : Volcus (part 1)

Darius : Deminonbinary Cisgender

Darius has always considered themselves as Deminonbinary, though his granddaughter Frederica didn’t really understand what it means. Being the soft grandpa that he is, he took his time to explain it to her, even a million times. Now she finally understands her grandfather better.

Family : Berger {Son} (deceased)

             Frederica {Granddaughter}

Lover : Unknown (deceased)

Frederica : Polyromantic Quadrisian Polyamorous

Being the romanticist that she is, Frederica felt love towards multiple persons despite being only 14 years old, hence why her Grandfather said she seems to be Polysexual. She is also shown to have a male lean, or masculine people, hence why she is Toric / Quadrisian. But also, being a huge romanticist, she now wants to be with different people that she loves (in that case Ashley and Adura). Surprisingly enough, she fell in love with women, but these 2 don’t really consider themselves as girls and both show some masculine traits, which the young Frederica loves about them.

Family : Berger {Father} (deceased)

             Darius {Grandfather}

Lovers : Ashley and Adura

Clouet : Panromantic Heterocurious

Just like Mary and Luna, Clouet shows affection towards everyone, regardless of their gender and sexuality. Always going on adventures with Ciel, she fell in love with her, but she is still a bit of a sadist towards her. She said it’s her own way of showing her affection. Of course Ciel has a hard time dealing with that side of Clouet.

Family : Unknown

Lover : Ciel

Ciel : Transgender Allosexual

Ciel was born a boy, but he never accepted this. Ciel always thought of him as a girl. However, being the shy boy that he is, he never thought he could start transitioning from male to female. It was Clouet’s outgoing and positive personality that encourages her to finally do it. Now a female, Ciel feels more confident of herself, mostly thanks to her teammate, now lover, Clouet.

Family : Unnamed Grandfather {deceased}

Lover : Clouet

Leoness : Trigender Orbisian

Leoness considered themselves as both a man and a woman, but not only. She was never afraid of telling her sexuality, gender or sexual orientation whatsoever to everyone, though there is one thing she kept secret : her “third gender”. She wants people to think about it and try to guess. She also leans to the feminine side in terms of love.

Family : Unknown

Lover : Linker

City of Forest : Fuuga (part 1)

Cayenne : Hermaphrodite Polyamorous Straight-Ally

What makes Cayenne unique from others is that he was born Hermaphrodite, though it’s the masculine genes that won over the feminine ones. He fall in love with Lyra ever since she arrived in the village, little did he know that she was feeling the same way. He will also realized that he starts to grow found of Shino, but he was afraid to tell Lyra because of a possible negative reaction. But she reveals that she is also Polyamorous so it makes their love even stronger ! Now they will be together forever ; just the 3 of them. Since he is only attracted to women, he somewhat considers himself a Staight-Ally towards like homosexual, transgender, bi ou trigender, etc...

Family : Isai {Adoptive Brother ; almost like a Father Figure to him}

Lovers : Lyra and Shino

Shino : Deminonbinary Androgynosexual

Shino has never truly considered herself as a true man or as a true woman, hence why she believes that Deminonbinary fits her perfectly. She also grew kind of found of Cayenne to a point where she will fall in love with him. She will have a bit of a harsh time dealing with him being with Lyra at the same time, but seeing that Lyra doesn’t mind it all either since she’s also Polyamorous, it will be easier for her to accept it and she will even grew found of Lyra too ! Her older brother Magatuki will have a harder time to accept it than his baby shinobi sister.

Family : Unnamed Parents

             Magatuki {Older Brother}

Lovers : Cayenne and Lyra

Sumika : Apogender Hyposexual

“Never in a million years I will consider myself to be a part of gender identity or things like that” is the thing that Sumika will always say when people refers to her as a woman or a girl. She is really serious in that subject and she could be so mean if you’re saying such things to her. However, if there is one thing that she doesn’t understand about herself, is that she never felt any sexual attraction or such. She will realize that she is Hyposexual in that regard.

Family : Unnamed Parents

Lover : Vanessa

Lyra : Polyromantic Hypersexual

In terms of sexual attraction, Lyra is the total opposite of her rival Sumika. Her libido is higher than normal, and she is fully satisfied with her man. Speaking of her man, Cayenne, he is Polyamorous, just like her, which makes their bonds even stronger ! They are said to be so powerful and unbreakable together. What the others don’t know is that there was a moment where they briefly met when they were younger, and this altercation made Lyra love Cayenne so deeply after they were reunited in Fuuga : to make it short, she ows him her own life. She will also try her best to help Shino to get used of this triangle-like relationship.

Family : Unknown {Presumed Dead}

Lovers : Cayenne and Shino

Kugo : Heteroromantic Demiboy

This young boy was always interested in girls, but one in particular caught his eye ever since he met her, and he wants to follow her no matter what (since Lyra still doesn’t want to take him under her wing) : this girl is named Celene, or Luna, the young Kugo will learn her real name and identity. Despite her 2 identities, Kugo was still deeply in love, and he will do anything to protect her. He also doesn’t consider himself as only a boy, but just like Leoness, he doesn’t talk about his “other half”.

Family : Unknown

Lover : Luna / Celene

#monter hunter riders #mhr #mhriders #volcus #city of fire #city of fire volcus #darius #deminonbinary cisgender #frederica #polyromantic quadrisian polyamorous #clouet #panromantic heterocurious #ciel #transgender allosexual #leoness #trigender orbisian #fuuga #city of forest #city of forest fuuga #cayenne #hermaphrodite polyamorous straight ally #shino #deminonbinary androgynosexual #sumika #apogender hyposexual #lyra #polyromantic hypersexual #kugo #heteroromantic demiboy #pride

[posi-pan]

A panphobe claimed “multiple historical bi activists are against pansexuality” and used Lani Ka’ahumanu as an example. They cited a quote from her book, said “she pointed out the problem loud and clear” but “pro-pans aren’t ready for that conversation” and ended with “listen to bisexual elders” and “protect bisexual history”.

As someone who actually read her book and knows a bit about her activism, this made me too angry to ignore it.

This is the cited quote from Lani Ka’ahumanu and Loraine Hutchins’ book Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out:

Bisexual attraction is narrowed to “men and women” while pansexual “opens the possibilities for attraction to more than two genders.” These definitions arbitrarily define bisexual in a binary way and then present pansexual as a non-binary alternative. This opens the doorway to a judgment that pansexual identity is superior to bisexual identity because it “opens possibilities” and is a “more fluid and much broader form of sexual orientation”. This judgmental conclusion is unacceptable and dangerous as it lends itself to perpetuating bisexual erasure. The actual lived non-binary history of the bisexual community and movement and the inclusive culture and community spirit of bisexuals are eradicated when a binary interpretation of our name for ourselves is arbitrarily assumed. (p. 16-17)

Left out is that pansexuality is not being criticized in that quote. How resource glossaries define pansexual and bisexual is being criticized. Specifically Exploring the Dimensions of Human Sexuality and Trans Bodies, Trans Selves.

Left out is that the following paragraph states:

The point is to respect one another and remain flexible in the ever changing self-identity landscape. We have to hold a safe space for people to define their personal experience without judgment. There is room for all of us. (p. 17)

Left out is that these quotes are in the same chapter:

Don’t “identity police” but DO spend time acknowledging the diversity that exists within the “B in LGBT” (p. 12) People who are attracted to more than one sex and/or gender — now called variously bi, pan, fluid, queer. (p. 12) All sexual identities including queer, pan, fluid, etc. (p. 13) The term bisexual will be used as an inclusive term to mean romantic and/or sexual attraction to more than one gender, and includes pansexual, fluid, omnisexual, and queer self-identifications. (p. 14) Pansexual people have been actively involved in the bisexual community since the 1970s. (p. 15) We bisexuals, queer people, polysexuals, fluid people, pansexuals, by every name we call ourselves — continue to subvert gender assumptions and explore naming ourselves — by every other identity, to no-identity-needed-or-wanted at all. (p. 21) What’s most important is respecting each person’s self-identity and being recognized and understood for who we are. (p. 21)

Left out is that Lani Ka’ahumanu said this in 2016:

I’m so glad I’m mentoring, and there’s so many young bisexuals coming up, and transgender people, and pansexuals, and sexuals, and fluids, and whatever you want to call yourself. Yes, do it. Just push it all. Please. (1:47:55)

Left out is that Lani Ka’ahumanu cofounded the Bay Area Bisexual Network, which published Anything That Moves, the pan inclusive magazine that the Bi Manifesto came from. The group has since been renamed to the Bay Area Bi+ & Pan Network.

Left out is that the bisexual community has a large, long history of supporting and including pan/mspec identities, one that far surpasses any pan/mspecphobic bisexual individuals.

Lani Ka’ahumanu supports pansexuality (and other mspec identities) and self-identification, believes there’s a place for all of our labels, and encourages people to grow as the terminology for sexuality grows.

But panphobes are taking the words of an almost 80 year old mixed race bisexual activist wildly out of context in order to use her as a tool in a hate campaign against a sexuality she supports.

So, tell me. Who really needs to listen to bisexual elders? Who does bisexual history really need to be protected from?

#pansexual #pan antagonism #text #mine #reference #bi antagonism #i'm not gonna lie and i say i loved ''bi any other name'' i had issues with it. but how it and lani are being misrepresented is FUCKED. #*500 #*1k #long post

[aro-and-tired]

Loveless Aro Survey: Survey results (part 1)

PART 2

The survey wanted to gather some information on people who use the loveless aro label, as well as the opinions of non-loveless aros on the loveless label. Both groups were given a set of demographic questions, to see if there are any specific trends in who is more likely to identify as loveless. This first post will focus on showing the results of demographic questions, while results gotten on further questions (regarding experiences and opinions) will be shared in a second post, as a single post for everything would be far too long.

At the start of the survey, people were asked if they identify as a loveless aro, with possible answers being “yes”, “no”, or “questioning”. People who answered “questioning” were counted together with people who answered “yes”. This was because, in order to question calling themselves loveless aros, questioning people had to find the term interesting for some reason, and their experiences can also give insight on who feels attracted to the loveless aro term.

As a last note before going in, the demographic results from non-loveless aros will be assumed to be representative of the general aro community and used for comparison. However, there is still the possibility they may not be entirely accurate, since the number of people who participated is still just a fraction of the entire aro community.

There were a total of 1330 participants. Of this, 57.5% (765) said they do not identify as loveless aro. 28.1% (374) said they are questioning using the term, and 14.4% (191) said they do identify as loveless aro. I will now present each of the demographic questions, putting side by side the results given by loveless and questioning loveless aros (which I will shorten to just loveless aros for sake of brevity) versus the results given by non-loveless aros. There will be a tl;dr at the end of this post.

Question 1: Which of the following do you most identify with?

This question allowed people to pick between the options : Allosexual Aromantic, Aroace, Aromid, Non-SAM Aro or Just Aro, Oriented or Angled Aroace, Questioning, and I don't identify with any of these.

Loveless aros

Aroace - 46%

Allosexual Aromantic - 19.6%

Non-SAM Aro or Just Aro - 15.4%

Oriented or Angled Aroace - 10.8%

Questioning - 3.5%

Aromid and I don’t identify with any of these - 2.3%

Non-loveless aros

Aroace - 48%

Allosexual Aromantic - 19.5%

Oriented or Angled Aroace - 16.5%

Non-SAM Aro or Just Aro - 6%

I don’t identify with any of these - 4.4%

Questioning - 3.5%

Aromid - 2.1%

Loveless aros seem more likely to identify as non-SAM aros, and less likely to identify as oriented or angled aroace. The other labels are used roughly by the same amount of people.

Question 2: Which arospec identities do you identify with? 

Multiple choices were allowed.

Loveless aros

Aromantic - 90.4%

Arospec - 28.3%

Quoiromantic or WTFromantic - 11.2%

Greyromantic - 10.1%

Aroqueer - 8.1%

Questioning - 8%

Demiromantic - 6.9%

Aegoromantic - 6.4%

Aroflux - 5.8%

Cupioromantic - 4.8%

Nebularomantic - 4.2%

Apothiromantic - 3.9%

Lithromantic or Akoiromantic - 3.4%

Bellusromantic - 2.8%

Arospike - 1.9%

Reciproromantic - 1.6%

Freyromantic - 1.2%

A few other options were added by participants, the most common being arovague and caedromantic.

Non-loveless aros

Aromantic - 81.2%

Arospec - 40.7%

Greyromantic - 16.7%

Demiromantic - 12.8%

Questioning - 11.9%

Quoiromantic or WTFromantic - 11.6%

Aroqueer - 7.3%

Aroflux - 7.2%

Aegoromantic - 6.4%

Cupioromantic - 6.3%

Lithromantic or Akoiromantic - 3.1%

Nebularomantic - 2.5%

Bellusromantic - 2.1%

Arospike - 1.6%

Apothiromantic - 1.3%

Reciproromantic - 1%

Freyromantic - 0.5%

Of the other labels added by participants, the most common were queer, fictoromantic, and romo aro.

Loveless aros seem more likely to identify with the label “aromantic”, and less likely to identify as “arospec”. Loveless aros seem in general less likely to identify with specific arospec labels (the most popular for loveless aros was picked by 11.2% of participants, while the most popular for non-loveless aros was picked by 16.7%). Looking at the relative popularity of specific arospec labels, the main difference seems to be that demiromantic is less used by loveless aros.

Question 3: How old are you?

Note: there was a typo here. The 36-40 age bracket was incorrectly marked as 34-40, but given the number of people who picked this or the previous age bracket is very low this hopefully led to minimal confusion.

Loveless aros

15 or younger - 14.7%

16-20 - 45.8%

21-25 - 27.6%

26-30 - 8%

31-35 - 2.3%

36-40 - 1.2%

41-45 - 0.4%

Non-loveless aros

15 or younger - 13.6%

16-20 - 46.9%

21-25 - 26.7%

26-30 - 8.2%

31-35 - 2.9%

36-40 - 0.9%

41-45 - 0.7%

46-50 - 0.1%

Age wise, there wasn’t any significant difference between the two groups. Keep in mind, however, that because the survey was mainly shared on social media it’s expected for participants to have skewed young.

Question 4: How would you describe your gender?

Multiple choices were allowed.

Loveless aros

Nonbinary - 43%

Agender - 32.2%

Transgender - 28.1%

Female - 21.6%

Genderqueer - 18.9%

Male - 17.5%

Cisgender - 15.4%

Genderfluid - 14.2%

Questioning - 12.7%

Demigender - 10.1%

Xenogender - 8.3%

Arogender - 7.3%

Genderflux - 5.8%

Many other labels were mentioned by participants, the most common being bigender, gendervoid and neutrois.

Non-loveless aros

Nonbinary - 42.6%

Female - 29%

Transgender - 27.8%

Cisgender - 24.6%

Agender - 24.2%

Genderqueer - 19.6%

Male - 14%

Questioning - 13.1%

Genderfluid - 12.8%

Demigender - 8.9%

Genderflux - 6.4%

Xenogender - 6.3%

Arogender - 2.6%

Many other labels were mentioned by participants, the most common being bigender, gendervoid, queer, neutrois, pangender and cassgender.

Non-loveless aros are more likely to be cisgender, and more likely to consider themselves female, while the percentage of people identifying as male doesn’t change too much between the two groups. On the other hand, loveless aros are more likely to be agender or arogender.

Question 5: How would you describe your sexual orientation?

Multiple choices were allowed.

Loveless aros

Asexual - 55.9%

Asexual spectrum - 24.2%

Queer - 23.4%

Allosexual - 13.1%

No labels - 10.8%

Bisexual - 10.4%

Questioning - 8.1%

Gay and Lesbian - 6.7%

Pansexual - 5.3%

Heterosexual - 3.6%

Polysexual and Trixic - 1.4%

Toric - 0.9%

Various participants added other labels, with most participants specifying the asexual spectrum identities they identify with (the most common being aegosexual, aceflux, demisexual and greysexual). Out of the non-acespec labels, the ones used by more than one person were enbian and sapphic.

Non-loveless aros

Asexual - 60.9%

Queer - 25.6%

Asexual spectrum - 25.2%

Bisexual - 14.9%

Allosexual - 12.5%

Questioning - 8%

No labels - 6.7%

Pansexual - 5.9%

Lesbian - 4.8%

Gay - 3.7%

Heterosexual - 3.2%

Trixic - 2.4%

Polysexual - 1.8%

Toric - 0.7%

Out of the labels participants added, the more common were various asexual spectrum identities (the most common being quoisexual, aegosexual, greysexual and demisexual). Out of the non-acespec labels, the only one used by more than one person was enbian.

The bigger differences seen between the two groups is that loveless aros are more likely to not label their sexual orientation (in line with non-SAM aros being more common between loveless aros), while non-loveless aros are slightly more likely to be bisexual than loveless aros are. It’s also interesting that while the percentage of aroaces is more or less the same for loveless and non-loveless aros, non-loveless aros are somewhat more likely to identify as asexual.

Question 6: Are you neurodivergent or mentally ill? 

Note: a person reached out to me telling me how this question could come off as insensitive to some neurodivergent people who would prefer if neurodivergency and mental illness were not associated together. If anyone wants to leave further feedback on this, feel free to do so.

Loveless aros

Yes - 63.4%

Unsure - 22.3%

No - 12.4%

Prefer not to say - 1.9%

Non-loveless aros

Yes - 54.6%

Unsure - 27.7%

No - 16.3%

Prefer not to say - 1%

Loveless aros seem more likely to be neurodivergent or mentally ill than non-loveless aros.

Question 7: Are you physically disabled or chronically ill?

Loveless aros

No - 69.4%

Yes - 15.4%

Unsure - 13.1%

Prefer not to say - 2.1%

Non-loveless aros

No - 71.6%

Yes - 14%

Unsure - 13.1%

Prefer not to say - 1.3%

There aren’t any big differences between the two groups when it comes to physical disability.

Question 8: Do you experience tertiary attraction of some kind?

Multiple choices were allowed.

Note: some people said they wished I had given an option for people who do not label tertiary attraction / feel tertiary attraction is not important to their identity. While it was only a handful of people, keep in mind results may not be 100% accurate.

Loveless aros

Aesthetic attraction - 63%

Platonic attraction - 39.3%

Questioning - 27.4%

Queerplatonic attraction - 23.2%

Sensual attraction - 23%

Alterous attraction - 20.7%

I experience no tertiary attraction - 13.3%

Other types of attraction - 5.8%

Non-loveless aros

Aesthetic attraction - 71.5%

Platonic attraction - 68.5%

Queerplatonic attraction - 38.8%

Sensual attraction - 35.3%

Alterous attraction - 28.2%

Questioning - 26.3%

Other types of attraction - 9.2%

I experience no tertiary attraction - 6%

Loveless aros are a little less likely to experience tertiary attraction. Also, loveless aros are less likely to experience pretty much all types of tertiary attraction compared to non-loveless aros. The most dramatic difference involves platonic attraction - 68% of non-loveless aros experience it, but only 39% of loveless aros do.

Question 9: Do you consider yourself aplatonic?

Loveless aros

No - 51.3%

Questioning - 29.2%

Yes - 19.5%

Non-loveless aros

No - 90.2%

Questioning - 7.2%

Yes - 2.6%

There is a huge difference here between the two groups. Nearly half of loveless aros either consider themselves aplatonic or are questioning it, while when it comes to non-loveless aros 90% of them neither use the label nor are they questioning it.

Question 10: Are you part of the voidpunk movement?

Loveless aros

I don’t know what that means - 38.6%

Yes - 35%

No - 26.4%

Non-loveless aros

I don’t know what that means - 43.8%

No - 36.3%

Yes - 19.9%

Loveless aros are quite more likely to consider themselves part of the voidpunk movement.

Question 11: Is there anything else about your demographics that you want to share or believe is relevant to this survey?

The main goal of this question was to see what other information could have been gathered, or would be interesting to gather were a similar survey to be run another time.

It would be meaningful to collect information regarding people’s race. Some people specified their race, although far too few to make any sort of comparison right now. Since race can be major influence on how people perceive their identity, I regret not adding a question centering on that.

Cultural background would have also been interesting to gather. Since this survey was in English, the perspectives given are mostly those of Anglophones - especially Americans, considering tumblr’s demographics. There have been however various people who mentioned not being USAmerican, stating that this influenced how they view matters of identity and love (some on this will be in Part 2 of these results).

Lastly and connected to the previous, religious background would have also been interesting to gather, as some people (mostly Christians or former Christians) have talked about how their view of lovelessness intersects with their religious history (will also be discussed in Part 2).

TL;DR

The biggest differences between loveless and non-loveless aros relate to how the two groups experience platonic attraction: non-loveless aros are more likely to experience all kinds of tertiary attraction, with loveless aros being both less likely to experience any individual kind of attraction and less likely to experience tertiary attraction in general. The most noticeable difference was that loveless aros are a lot less likely to experience platonic attraction than non-loveless aros.

This also ties in to the aplatonic label, which nearly 20% of loveless aros use, compared to less than 3% of non-loveless aros. In fact, the vast majority of non-loveless aros does not consider the aplatonic label for themselves at all.

Loveless aros are somewhat more likely to identify as non-SAM aros, as well as more likely not to label their sexual orientation. On the topic of gender, loveless aros are less likely to be cis, and they are more likely to be agender or arogender. The higher percentage of both non-SAM aros and arogender people could indicate that loveless aros are more likely to find their aromanticism the more important part of their identity.

Furthermore, loveless aros are less likely to identify as arospec or use specific arospec labels, while they are more likely to use the word “aromantic”.

Loveless aros are more likely to relate to the voidpunk label. Loveless aros are also more likely to be neurodivergent or mentally ill.

As far as the results of this survey show, there are no big differences between loveless and non-loveless aros when it comes to age or physical disability.

#aromantic #loveless aro #survey results

[pointlesstrashyexistence]

I would just like to say that if you don’t believe polysexual, pansexual, and omnisexual people are valid, stop following me or going through my page. I've been seeing bullshit posts about how any label that has to do with liking multiple genders except for bisexual is transphobic and biphobic.

I am a nonbinary person and prefer to use the label pansexual to describe myself. I believe the definition of pansexual is what often most closely fits who I am attracted to and how I’m attracted to them. My best friend, who believes that in theory the definition of pansexual is closest to how she experiences attraction, prefers to use the label bisexual. Me choosing to use the label pansexual does not invalidate how my friend chooses the label bisexual and vice versa.

Bisexuality is not inherently transphobic, but based on how it has often been used, there is the recognition that the person who uses that label may or may not only like a certain set amount of genders which may not include people who identify as nonbinary or agender or demigender. That doesn’t mean someone who is nonbinary or agender or demigender cannot use the label bisexual to describe themselves if they want. Some bisexuals only like 2 genders, some like more, and some like all, but there is a recognition that the person who uses that label possibly only has the potential to be attracted to certain groups, which is part of why some people who use the labels polysexual, pansexual, and omnisexual may prefer to use these, as it removes some of the ambiguity over who they are attracted to. These labels are much more fixed in defining who someone is attracted to than bisexual, which is more fluid and can mean many different things depending on the individual who identifies themself as such.

Bisexuality is not inherently transphobic, but that does not mean there are not bisexuals who are transphobic. Just as there are gay men who are transphobic, just as there are lesbians who are transphobic, there are bisexuals who are transphobic. None of these labels are inherently transphobic, but trans women, trans men, nonbinary people, agender people, demigender people, bigender people etc. may be more wary when attempting to navigate relationships with people who uses those labels as there is no certainty over whether or not the person is transphobic until you ask. I do not know what a lesbian or bisexual might think or how they might react to hearing I am nonbinary, but I do know that an omnisexual or pansexual person would be fine. If I ever date a trans man, a trans woman, a nonbinary person, an agender person, a demigender person etc. and I tell them I’m pansexual, that person does not need to worry about my reaction to their gender identity just because they are not cis.

Polysexual, pansexual, and omnisexual are not “superior” to bisexual. Bisexuality is a label that is very fluid in its use defining who someone is attracted to, because each person who uses that label will define their attraction to different genders differently. Something similar can be said for the labels gay and lesbian. There are transphobic gay man who are only attracted to cis men, gay men who like cis and trans men, gay men who like cis and trans man and masc presenting amab nonbinary people etc. There are transphobic lesbian women who only like cis women, lesbian women who only like cis and trans women, lesbian women like cis and trans women and femme presenting afab nonbinary people. There are trans, nonbinary, bigender, agender, and demigender people who use the labels gay, lesbian, and bisexual and may or may not have very specific groups of people they are attracted to because there is fluidity that comes with these labels. Polysexual, pansexual, and omnisexual are labels that are more specific in their definition which is also part of why they are used by certain people.

The use of labels similar to bisexuality does not erase the label bisexual. Someone identifying as polysexual, pansexual, or omnisexual is not biphobic. But it is also wrong for people to accuse anyone who uses the label bisexual of transphobia just because of the label they use to describe their sexual attraction.

#lgbt #lgbtqplus #lgbt+ #lgbtqai #lgbtq #lgbtqiia+ #lgbtqa #pansexuality #omnisexuality #polysexual #pansexual #omnisexual #polysexuality #bisexual #bisexuality

[miladyhaddock]

Httyd LGBTQ Headcanons

These are Httyd characters who I believe are part of the LGBTQ community, these are just my opinions and these are just headcanons. I won’t be including Hiccup and Astrid in this because I honestly have no clue of their sexuality.

Heather - Demisexual

If you know Heather well, then you something she values very much is trust. Heather only opens her heart to people that she’s very close with, people she has emotional bonds with. That’s why I think Heather is demisexual. A lot of people see her as lesbian or bisexual, but to me she’s demisexual. Also, I do think she had a crush on Astrid, you can just tell based on how she looks at her and that even though of their bad past, she truly trusts and admires Astrid. And the reason why I think she started to date Fishlegs was because well he’s Fishlegs. He’s very open minded and is always there to support the people her cares about. Based on the fact of those two mailing letters to one another, you can tell they had a very close and emotional bond. Anyways, Heather is demisexual in my opinion and I would be so amazed if it’s actually canon, because demisexuality needs more representation.

Snotlout - Bisexual

I’m pretty sure we can all agree that Snotlout is indeed bisexual. Snotlout has show attraction to men, Dagur, Fishlegs, and possibly Eret (He probably had a love hate thing for our buff ex dragon trapper) but he also has shown attraction to nearly every woman in the Httyd world. So in my opinion, Snotlout is definitely bisexual.

Ruffnut - Polysexual

In my opinion, Ruffnut is polysexual. We have seen Ruffnut flirt with Eret, Hiccup, and even Heather. (You can’t deny she was flirting with Heather) I don’t see Ruffnut as bisexual or pansexual, but definitely polysexual. Also, wouldn’t it be awesome if she was truly polysexual then there can finally be more polysexual representation in the animation media.

Fishlegs - Pansexual

Fishlegs is by far one of the most openminded, kindest, and most supportive characters in Httyd. That’s what I believe Fishlegs is pansexual. He would fall for someone based on their personality, not on gender. Also, for all we know he had a little crush on Hiccup.

Tuffnut- Pansexual

I know a lot of people see Tuff as asexual, but I think he is pan just like our dear Fishlegs. He seems like the kind of guy who would fall in love with s ole one because of who they are spiritually. So in my opinion, he’s pansexual.

Eret - Bisexual

Eret is definitely bisexual to me. Like come on, did you see how he was blushing when he caught the bouquet Gobber threw?! And based on all the Gobber and Eret interactions in the last movie, I think that Dean did that purposely to give us a hint at Eret’s sexuality. The reason why I think Eret is bisexual is because he just seems like he has an attraction to women as well. Like he was sort of flirting with Astrid at one moment in the second movie but that could also be because that’s his overconfident self. But to me, he’s bisexual.

Atali - Aroace

To me, Atali is both asexual and aromantic. We have never seen Atali have an attraction towards any of the characters, it could be because we only got like three episodes with her or because the writers were hinting she’s just not into relationships. A massive part of me thinks she is indeed aroace which is amazing because we need aroace representation. But also a small part of me thinks she could possibly be lesbian.

Dagur - Bisexual

Dagur is definitely bisexual to me because there has been multiple hints of his sexuality. First off, his interactions with Hiccup. You can just tell by how he looks at Hiccup that he has an attraction to him. Also, I know in one of the first Rtte episodes he complimented Hiccup’s appearance. But he also has shown to be attracted to women as well. Part of me thinks he had a small attraction to Astrid at one point but we all know he fell in love with Mala.

#Httyd #rtte #how to train your dragon #race to the edge #Dreamworks dragons #httyd heather #Heather #snotlout #snotlout jorgenson #ruffnut #ruffnut thorston #tuffnut #tuffnut thorston #ruffnut and tuffnut #fishlegs #fishlegs ingerman #eret #eret son of eret #atali #wingmaiden #wingmaidens #dagur #dagur the deranged #httyd headcanons #lgbtq

[colorisbyshe]

I am personally driven insane when people defend pansexuality by saying that biphobia exists due to misconceptions about bisexuality and not because of the existence of pansexuality like let's all take a wild guess as to where 90% these misconceptions come from

Nah, most of the misconceptions existed before pansexuality and every other term where attraction to multiple genders is called everything but bisexual (omnisexual, biromantic, polysexual, bicurious, heteroflexible, homoflexible, etc).

The issue is that instead of correcting the misconceptions, all these people decide to reaffirm them and create alternate terms. "THOSE bisexuals are obsessed with genitals and sex and don't prefer personality over the physical/gender but I am ___ and therefore DO NOT do those things."

Their problem solving involves throwing other people under the bus instead of advocating for themselves and saying, "Hey, bisexuals can have any sort of gender preference, including no preference at all!" or "Bisexuality isn't about sex, bisexual aces and minors and sex repulsed people exist!"

"Bisexuality is inclusive of trans people, in fact many trans people and nonbinary people are bisexual themselves!" is too brave a statement, so in cowardice they pretend to be enlightened over the horny, transphobic, shallow bisexual other.

No, they can't use full sentences to say "I'm bisexual and I have no gender preference" (even though I've legit... never seen that be relevant) or "I'm bisexual and I don't feel sexual desire. I don't ever want sex." It's just always "I must condense the most information possible into one word and if that information somehow implicates bisexuals (and even gay and straight people) in bigotry, shallowness, and other issues... so be it!"

They see all of the misconceptions about bisexuality and trans inclusion in orientations and they turn it around to benefit themselves at the expense of everyone else.

Once informed of what is happened, I must say... every pansexual is doing this intentionally. The ones who haven't been informed every orientation is trans inclusive or that bisexuality can involve any gendered preference are maybe doing it by accident bceause, again, pansexuals didn't invent these misconceptions, but once they are told... that is a deliberate choice to drag everyone down to make themselves feel tall.

#pansexuality

[domjaehyun]

to me bisexuality does not inherently mean all genders, some bisexual ppl can be attracted to all, while some are attracted to 2.. but it doesnt mean that bisexual ppl who arent attracted to all genders cant fall in love with someone who is out of the spectrum they're attracted to

okay …. there’s a disconnect. if you’re not attracted to all genders… and you fall in love with someone who is not one of the gender identities you’re attracted to….are you not then attracted to that gender? for example, if i were exclusively attracted to men…then i fell in love with a woman….that would mean the gender spectrum i was previously attracted to changed.

also i mean this as nicely as possible: did you read my other replies? if you aren’t attracted to all genders, you’re not bisexual. bisexuality originated when there was a strong gender binary, i will agree to that. when the gender binary was less reinforced, the definition changed. if you went up to someone who wasn’t attracted to all genders and yet said they were bisexual and asked them what genders they weren’t attracted to, what would you deem a valid answer? spoiler: there is none. if they’re not attracted to women, they’re not bisexual. if they’re not attracted to men, they’re not bisexual. if they’re not attracted to someone because they’re trans or gender non-binary, they have a bias to work through. that sort of exclusion is harmful to the bisexual community. if you’re attracted to multiple but not all genders, i suggest you look into polysexuality.

#i’m getting like. very tired of this discussion #i am repeating myself. over and over. #this is not directed at you anon #but like. quite frankly if you’re gonna debate me on something that i find fundamentally harmful to me #i’d rather you not speak to me like. at all #like i didn’t invite a discussion in my carrd i said don’t follow me. #i thought it’d go without saying that it meant don’t speak to me #but ig i should clarify #answered #anon

[gettin-bi-bi-bi]

is bi an umbrella term for pan omni and poly? i see a lot of people saying that and can you tell me why i’m just really confused 😅

No, it's not. And it shouldn't be. Sometimes people use "bi+" as an umbrella but I also find that less than ideal bc it erases other m-spec identities. And there you have it: m-spec (short for multi spectrum) would be one possible umbrella term that seems to be very popular online and in English. Offline in my activism in Germany we often use non-monosexual (or short "non-mono") or we paraphrase it to "people attracted to multiple genders".

Using bi as an umbrella term for m-specs sucks bc it only plays into the hands of gatekeepers who think that only bisexuality is valid and that all the others should just id as bi. Bi as an umbrella also fails to communicate that there are different m-spec identities that are not identical with bisexuality. It's erasure and just factually wrong. Though some m-specs use multiple labels for themselves there's plenty who have their reasons for why they want to use polysexual instead of bi, for example. Or why bi instead of pan. So neither one of these individual labels makes sense as an umbrella term.

Maddie

[mascbi]

(This is a copy of a post made on the original mascbi tumblr, now deactivated, on December 4th 2019)

Updated results on my bisexual survey.

My survey on bisexuality and biphobia is still running - but responses have dried up for long enough that I felt it was time to go through the kind of tedious process of counting them up all over again and seeing what’s changed.

Overwhelmingly: not much. I’ve edited quite a few of the percentages of answers, but it’s mostly 1 or 2% differences - I think I noticed maybe one answer where I had to change a percentage by 3%.

I won’t repeat here my several disclaimers that you can find on my previous post detailing responses, so you can read them there instead.

The survey will continue to run indefinitely so that people may be able to review the answers and their wording freely outside of these posts (turning the survey off would disable viewing of answers).

1. Demographics

A majority of the respondents were older teens or adults, with the main age demographics being 20 to 25 (44%) and 16 to 19 (36%). 12% of respondents were aged 26 to 35. 6% were 13 to 15. About 2% were over 35. No respondents were under 13.

Most respondents have identified as bisexual for 2 to 10 years: 27% for 3 to 5 years, 25% from 5 to 10 years, and 22% from 2 to 3 years. 10% have identified as bisexual for 6 months to a year, 5% for less than 6 months, and 1% have identified as bisexual for a month or less. 8% have identified as bisexual for 10 to 20 years, and 1% for more than 20 years.

46% of respondents identified as women. 13% identified as men. 14% identify as nonbinary and female-aligned. 8% identified as nonbinary and male-aligned. 17% of respondents identified as nonbinary and unaligned or multi-gendered. The remaining participants indicated identifying as neither women, men, nor nonbinary, which included people with genders other than woman or man who didn’t use the term nonbinary, people questioning or unsure of their gender, and people with culturally specific genders who did not identify as nonbinary.

50% of respondents identified as cisgender. 35% identify as transgender. 15% identify as neither (the survey specified that this option was only for non-binary people who don’t identify as cisgender nor transgender, and does not account for cisgender people who don’t like the word cisgender).

97% of respondents indicated they were not intersex. 2% preferred not to say whether they were intersex. 1% of respondents indicated they were intersex.

72% of respondents are white. Other ethnicities include people mixed with white (16%), Asian people (all parts of Asia confounded, 11%, with smaller percentages based on the region), Black people (6%), ethnically Jewish people (6%), Native Americans (4%), and people uncertain of their ethnic background (2%). 2% of respondents identified their ethnicity as latine, hispanic, or mestizo/a. Other percentages were under 1%.

12% of respondents identified as hispanic or latine.

30% of respondents are middle class. 25% are low income/working class. 22% are lower middle class. 14% are upper middle class. 4% of respondents live in poverty. Less than 1% of respondents are upper class. 4% preferred not to indicate their economic background or weren’t sure of what they’d qualify as.

20% of respondents are disabled.

80% of respondents are mentally ill.

69% of respondents live in North America. 22% live in Europe. 5% live in Oceania. 2% live in South America. 2% live in Asia. Less than 1% live in Africa. Less than 1% live in the Caribbean.

2. Defining bisexuality.

When asked to define bisexuality in general (multiple possible answers per respondent): 49% of respondents define bisexuality as attraction to all genders. 46% define it as attraction to multiple genders. 42% define it as attraction to one’s own gender and other genders. 41% define it as attraction to two or more genders. 36% define it as attraction regardless of gender. 11% define it as attraction to both sexes. 10% define it as attraction to two genders. 6% of respondents didn’t have a clear definition of bisexuality. 1% of respondents indicated other definitions

When asked to define their bisexuality specifically: 42% of respondents defined their bisexuality as attraction to all genders. 33% defined it as attraction regardless of gender. 28% defined it as attraction to one’s own gender and others. 25% defined it as attraction to multiple genders. 19% defined it as attraction to two or more genders. 9% defined it as attraction to both sexes. 5% defined it as attraction to two genders. 5% of respondents didn’t have a clear definition of their own bisexuality. 4% of respondents gave other definitions of their own bisexuality.

More than 99% of respondents believe that bisexual people can be attracted to binary transgender people. More than 99% of respondents believe that bisexual people can be attracted to nonbinary people.

90% of respondents do not believe that all bisexual people have a gender preference. 64% of respondents believe that all bisexual people experience attraction to different genders in different ways.

81% of respondents indicate they are attracted to all genders.

For respondents who were not attracted to all genders:

19% of respondents indicate being attracted to women. 18% of respondents indicate being attracted to men. 12% of respondents indicate being attracted to female-aligned nonbinary people. 11% of respondents indicate being attracted to male-aligned nonbinary people. 10% of respondents indicate being attracted to unaligned nonbinary people. 7% of respondents indicate being attracted to genderless or multi-gendered people. 2% of respondents indicate different gender-specific attraction, such as attraction to anyone who isn’t a cis man, or having a difficulty to answer due to not being sure or not knowing enough nonbinary people.

When asked about having a preference for one or more genders over others: 38% of respondents indicated having a preference for women. 35% of respondents indicated they do not have a preference based on gender. 26% of respondents indicated a preference for men. 25% of respondents indicated a preference for female-aligned nonbinary people. 20% of respondents indicated a preference for male-aligned nonbinary people. 18% of respondents indicated a preference for unaligned nonbinary people. 14% of respondents indicated a preference for genderless or multi-gendered people. 5% of respondents indicated their preference fluctuates, they have a preference based on presentation, they have a preference for people who are not cis, or they are uncertain of their preference, and other personal answers.

79% of respondents indicated they feel attraction differently based on gender. 21% indicated they do not.

3. Relationship to the LGBT+ community.

96% of respondents consider themselves part of the LGBT+ community. 4% do not.

When asked about their presence in real-life LGBT+ spaces: 40% of respondents have participated in one or a few LGBT+ events, but don’t have a regular presence in real-life LGBT+ spaces. 37% of respondents have not participated in LGBT+ real-life spaces but have several LGBT+ real-life friends. 14% of respondents are present and active in real-life LGBT+ spaces. 6% of respondents have not participated in real-life LGBT+ spaces and don’t have real-life LGBT+ friends. 3% of respondents gave other answers, many citing inability to participate in real-life LGBT+ spaces due to a lack of local LGBT+ events or living in homophobic areas.

When asked about their presence in online LGBT+ spaces: 50% of respondents follow/read/participate in a few LGBT+ online spaces but don’t have a regular presence in them. 27% of respondents are present and active in LGBT+ online spaces. 18% of respondents don’t participate in LGBT+ online spaces but have several LGBT+ online friends. 4% of respondents don’t participate in LGBT+ online spaces and don’t have LGBT+ online friends. Less than 1% of respondents gave a different answer - most weren’t sure of what constitutes an online LGBT+ spaces.

When asked about their relationship to the LGBT+ community (not repeated but also indicated at this question: percentage of people who do not identify as LGBT+): 37% of respondents feel strong solidarity with all of the LGBT+ community. 30% of respondents feel some solidarity with all of the LGBT+ community. 24% of respondents feel strong solidarity with some groups of the LGBT+ community, but not all. 7% of respondents don’t feel a strong solidarity with the rest of the LGBT+ community.

When asked if they feel a stronger sense of community with some parts of the LGBT+ community: 26% of respondents feel the same sense of community with all of the LGBT+ community.

51% of respondents feel a stronger sense of community with transgender people. 49% of respondents feel a stronger sense of community with nonbinary people. 44% of respondents feel a stronger sense of community with lesbians. 25% of respondents feel a stronger sense of community with gay men. 22% of respondents feel a stronger sense of community with pansexual/polysexual/omnisexual people. 16% of respondents feel a stronger sense of community with asexual/aromantic people. Most “other” responses included wanting to indicate a stronger sense of community with bisexual people over others (this was not an answer on the survey because it was assumed that bisexual people have community with themselves). Other “other” responses included LGBT+ people of color and intersex people.

When asked if they felt a weaker or no sense of community with some LGBT+ groups: 25% indicated they feel the same amount of community with all LGBT+ groups.

46% of respondents indicated they feel weaker or no community with asexual/aromantic people. 36% of respondents indicated they feel weaker or no community with pansexual/polysexual/omnisexual people. 28% of respondents indicated they feel weaker or no community with gay men. 16% of respondents indicated they feel weaker or no community with lesbians. 7% of respondents indicated they feel weaker or no community with nonbinary people. 5% of respondents indicated they feel weaker or no community with transgender people. 3% of respondents included other responses, with a prevalence of cisgender people (who were not an option because cisgender people are not an LGBT+ group).

When asked how they feel their bisexuality is treated in LGBT+ spaces (online or offline): 43% of respondents feel somewhat heard, respected and supported. 29% of respondents feel they are somewhat erased, disrespected or not shown support. 15% of respondents feel they are not heard, respected or supported enough. 8% of respondents feel very heard, respected and supported. 4% of respondents feel extremely erased, disrespected or not shown support. 2% of respondents gave other answers, with a prevalence for being closeted, and not talking about their bisexuality in LGBT+ spaces.

When asked about their experience of biphobia within real-life LGBT+ spaces: 52% of respondents did not have enough experience with real-life LGBT+ spaces to form an opinion. 16% of respondents have never felt biphobia in real-life LGBT+ spaces.

25% of respondents felt their bisexuality was erased. 16% have been made to feel that their acceptance in real-life LGBT+ spaces was conditional because of their bisexuality. 14% have been spoken over or shut down about their bisexuality. 9% have been insulted or mocked for their bisexuality.

2% of respondents gave other responses, including several experiences of biphobia that did not fit under the offered answers.

When asked if they had experienced biphobia in online LGBT+ spaces: 24% of respondents don’t have enough experience with online LGBT+ spaces to form an opinion. 14% of respondents have never experienced biphobia in online LGBT+ spaces.

43% of respondents have felt their bisexuality was erased in LGBT+ spaces. 31% have been made to feel that their acceptance in online LGBT+ spaces was conditional because of their bisexuality. 26% have been spoken over or shut down about their bisexuality. 20% have been mocked or insulted for their bisexuality.

4% of respondents gave other answers, including experiences of biphobia that did not fit under the offered answers.

Hundreds of respondents gave a personal answer when asked if they’d like to say more about their experiences in the LGBT+ community. A lot of these answers include talk about their experiences with biphobia and bi erasure in the LGBT+ community. These answers are available in the survey’s responses.

4. Bisexuality and biphobia outside the LGBT+ community.

When asked whether they were out as bisexual in real life: 58% of respondents are out to their close friends. 42% are out to everyone significant enough to warrant coming out to. 28% are out to siblings. 27% are out to casual friends. 25% are out to their parents. 13% are out to their coworkers or classmates. 10% are out to other family members.

13% are out online, but not in real life. 2% are not out to anyone, online or in real life.

When asked whether they were out to their significant other: 58% of respondents indicated they do not currently have a significant other. 40% of respondents have a significant other who knows they are bisexual. 1% of respondents have a significant other and are not out to them as bisexual. Less than 1% of respondents have more than one significant other, and are out as bisexual to one or more but not all.

When asked how their bisexuality was received by the people they are out to (note: this question asked to check all that applies to all people respondents are out to. It is possible for respondents to both check that they feel supported and that they do not feel supported, if different people have responded differently to their bisexuality.):

47% of respondents feel very supported by the people they are out to. 46% of respondents feel somewhat supported by the people they are out to. 23% feel supported by friends, but not family. 16% answered that they people they are out to ignore their bisexuality or don’t believe it is real. 5% indicated that their being out is a source of stress, harassment or mockery from the people they are out to. 5% indicated they don’t feel supported or respected by the people they are out to. 1% indicated that their being out is a source of violence or abuse. Less than 1% feel they are supported by their family, but not their friends.

9% of respondents gave other responses about the reception of their bisexuality by the people in their life.

When asked if their significant was also bisexual (not repeated here: percentage of respondents who do not have a significant other): 19% of respondents indicated their significant other is not bisexual. 18% of respondents indicated their significant other is also bisexual. 3% of respondents are not sure whether their significant other is bisexual. 2% of respondents have more than one significant other, with one or more, but not all being bisexual.

When asked how their current significant other received their bisexuality (not repeated here: percentage of respondents who do not have a significant other or are not out to them): 36% indicate their current significant other is very supportive of their bisexuality. 4% indicate their significant other is somewhat supportive of their bisexuality. Less than 1% indicate their significant other has accused them of cheating because of their bisexuality. Less than 1% indicate their significant other has made them feel that the respondent’s bisexuality is less valid or moral than their sexuality. Less than 1% indicate their significant other has made them feel ashamed of their bisexuality. Less than 1% indicate their significant other is angered or offended by their bisexuality, or finds it threatening. Less than 1% indicate their significant other doesn’t want them to talk about their bisexuality or seems ashamed of it. Less than 1% indicate their significant other doesn’t believe in their bisexuality. Less than 1% indicate their significant other uses their bisexuality to coerce them into sexual acts they do not want. Less than 1% indicate their significant other is not supportive of their bisexuality. 2% of respondents gave other answers about the reception of their bisexuality by their significant other, such as mentioning that their partner became more supportive with time or that they don’t discuss their bisexuality with their partner.

When asked how their bisexuality was received by significant others in past relationships: 28% of respondents have never had a significant other in the past.

29% of respondents had past significant others who were very supportive of their bisexuality. 15% had past significant others who were somewhat supportive of their bisexuality. 14% were never out to any past significant others. 9% have been accused of cheating because of their bisexuality. 9% had past significant others who did not want them to talk about their bisexuality. 9% had past significant others who did not believe in their bisexuality. 9% had past significant others who did used their bisexuality to coerce them into sexual acts they did not want. 8% had past significant others who made them feel that the respondent’s bisexuality was less valid or moral than theirs. 8% had past significant others who were angered, offended, or threatened by their bisexuality. 8% had past significant others who made them feel ashamed of their bisexuality. 7% had past significant others who were not supportive of their bisexuality. 3% had past significant others who mocked, harassed, insulted, beat, or otherwise abused them because of their bisexuality.

8% of respondents gave other responses about their experiences with past partners, including only being out to some partners, not identifying as bisexual in past relationships, as well as other experiences of biphobia from past significant others. 3% chose the “other” reply but did not write specifics.

When asked whether, regardless of the perpetrators (this question included strangers), they had experienced any of the following:

76% of respondents indicated their bisexuality was treated as a phase, a lie, or a cry for attention. 75% of respondents indicated their bisexuality was treated as a curiosity or a joke. 47% of respondents have been mocked, harassed or insulted on the basis of their bisexuality. 39% of respondents indicated their bisexuality was treated as a sexual fetish or that they were expected to participate in sexual acts they did not want because of their bisexuality. 21% have been sexually harassed on the basis of their bisexuality. 8% have faced sexual violence other than rape on the basis of their bisexuality. 7% have faced violence on the basis of their bisexuality. 5% have been raped on the basis of their bisexuality. 6% of respondents gave other answers, including experiences of biphobia that did not fit the offered answers.

5. Personal relationship to bisexuality.

Respondents were asked to check all that apply to their current personal feelings about their bisexuality. 70% of respondents take pride in their bisexuality. 25% hide their bisexuality from others. 20% want everyone to know they’re bisexual. 9% feel ashamed of their bisexuality. 4% wish they weren’t bisexual.

44% find that being bisexual informs their experiences in life. 42% find that being bisexual informs their relationships to others. 39% say that being bisexual is a huge part of their identity. 26% say that being bisexual isn’t a very important or defining part of them - it’s just one thing among others.

52% say that if they could choose to be straight, they would still be bisexual. 42% say if they could choose to be gay, they would still be bisexual. 10% say if they could choose to be gay, they would. 3% say if they could choose to be straight, they would.

40% feel they’re “not bisexual enough”. 38% still question their bisexuality and are never sure they’re really bisexual. 29% feel they’re “not LGBT enough” because of their bisexuality. 16% find that bisexual feels like a dirty word, and they have a hard time calling themselves bisexual even though they know they are. 14% feel guilt because of their bisexuality.

5% of respondents gave other answers about their relationship to their bisexuality, including mentions of conflicting feelings about bisexuality.

Respondents were asked to check all that applied to their past feelings about their bisexuality: 56% have had a hard time accepting their bisexuality and questioned themselves constantly. 54% have had a hard time admitting that they were bisexual, to themselves or others. 36% struggled with the bisexual label, felt like bisexual was a dirty word, or tried to call themselves other labels to avoid saying “bisexual”. 35% have been ashamed of their bisexuality. 31% have wished they weren’t bisexual. 30% have identified as pansexual/omnisexual/polysexual before realizing they were bisexual. 28% have identifiedd as a gay man or a lesbian before realizing they were bisexual. 26% have known they were bisexual as soon as they knew bisexuality existed. 20% have been proud of their bisexuality ever since they realized they were bisexual.

8% of respondents gave other answers about their past feelings about their bisexuality.

Respondents were asked if they identifiedd as another orientation other than straight before identifying as bisexual, and if so, why. 24% of respondents have only identified as bisexual.

31% say they had a preference for the same/similar gender and felt it made them gay/a lesbian. 26% say they were afraid to accept their different-gender attraction due to heteronormative pressures, trauma, or other reasons. 26% say they were afraid to accept their same-gender attraction due to homophobia, trauma, or other reasons. 26% say they identified as another sexuality because they believed bisexuality wasn’t inclusive enough. 23% say they were afraid to identify as bisexual due to stereotypes or stigma against bisexuality. 20% say they didn’t know any bisexual people and didn’t have an idea of what bisexuality could be. 17% say they were pressured by others to identify as another LGBT+ identity. 16% say they didn’t fit stereotypes about bisexuality and thought it meant they weren’t bisexual. 11% say they believed they weren’t bisexual because they didn’t have a gender preference or didn’t experience attraction differently based on gender. 5% say they believed bisexuality wasn’t real.

9% of respondents gave other responses about identifying as another non-straight orientation. 4% chose the “other” reply but did not specify a response.

6. Bisexuality and gender.

When asked whether their bisexuality informs their gender identity:

44% of respondents said their bisexuality doesn’t inform their gender. 26% say they feel a connection between their nonbinary identity and their bisexuality. 26% say they feel more connected to their gender because of their bisexuality. 20% say their bisexuality and their gender are inextricably linked. 11% say they feel less connected to their gender because of their bisexuality. 5% of respondents gave other responses about the relationship between their gender and their bisexuality.

When asked whether their bisexuality informs their gender presentation:

47% of respondents said their bisexuality does not inform their gender presentation. 34% say they present in a way that they feel reflects their bisexuality. 20% say their gender presentation is linked to their same-gender attraction. 20% say their gender and their bisexuality are inextricably linked, and so is their gender presentation. 9% say their gender presentation is linked to their different-gender attraction. 5% of respondents gave other answers about their relationship between their bisexuality and their gender presentation.

When asked whether they consider themselves gender non-conforming: 46% of respondents said they are GNC. 45% of respondents said they are not GNC. 9% of respondents gave other answers (most of them uncertain of whether they were GNC, or saying they are GNC sometimes).

When asked whether their gender non-conformity was linked to their bisexuality (not repeated here: percentage of respondents who are not gender non-conforming):

22% are GNC, but it isn’t linked to their bisexuality. 21% say they’re GNC because their bisexuality and their experience of gender are inextricably linked. 15% are GNC because it’s their way of expressing their sexuality. 9% are GNC to signal interest to potential same-gender partners. 6% of respondents gave other responses about the link between their gender non-conformity and their bisexuality.

When asked whether they had more to say on the relation between their gender and their sexuality, hundreds of respondents wrote personal answers, often discussing a shifting or fluid relationship to their gender and presentation linked to their bisexuality. These answers are available in the survey responses.

7. LGBT+ terminology and privileges.

10% of respondents use the term “monosexual” to talk about people only attracted to one gender. 22% believe in monosexual privilege.

13% use the term “straight-passing” to describe bisexual people in M/F relationships. 27% believe in straight-passing privilege.

12% believe lesbians have privilege over bisexual people. 82% do not believe lesbians have privilege over bisexual people. 6% had other answers, with a prevalence for feeling lesbians sometimes have privilege over bisexual people, or that it depends on the situation and circumstances.

18% believe gay men have privilege over bisexual people. 77% believe gay men do not have privilege over bisexual people. 6% had other answers, with the same tendency towards the idea circumstancial privilege as the previous question.

5% believe bisexual people have privilege over lesbians. 91% feel bisexual people do not have privilege over lesbians. 4% gave other answers, with the same tendency towards the idea of circumstancial privilege as previous questions. Several indicate feeling that bisexual people do have privilege when in M/F relationship.

5% believe bisexual people have privilege over gay men 92% feel bisexual people do not have privilege over gay men 3% gave other answers, with the same tendency towards the idea of circumstancial privilege as previous questions. Several indicate feeling that bisexual people do have privilege when in M/F relationship.

(Note: all questions about privilege indicated that the respondent must give their feelings on whether a group experiences privilege over another based on sexuality alone, not on gender.)

When asked whether they believe terms like twink/bear/etc are exclusive to gay men: 33% of respondents do not have an opinion.

49% believe these terms include bisexual men. 8% believe bisexual men can call themselves these terms only when they are in M/M relationships. 7% believe these terms are exclusive to gay men. 3% gave other answers.

When asked whether they believe the terms butch/femme are exclusive to lesbians:

21% of respondents do not have an opinion.

47% believe these terms include bisexual women. 19% believe these terms are exclusive to lesbians. 9% believe bisexual women can call themselves these terms only when they are in F/F relationships. 5% gave other answers.

When asked how they feel about the terms stag/doe:

28% of respondents do not know these terms. 25% have a neutral opinion.

25% don’t like the terms, but respect people using them. 17% like the terms, but do not use them. 10% find these terms offensive or dehumanizing. 3% like the terms and use them. 5% gave other answers.

When asked how they feel about the terms knight/mage: 56% of respondents do not know these terms. 15% have a neutral opinion.

16% don’t like the terms, but respect people using them. 10% like the terms, but do not use them. 5% find the terms offensive or dehumanizing. 2% like the terms and use them. 4% gave other answers.

When asked whether they believe bisexual people can call themselves gay: 71% say bisexual people can always call themselves gay. 20% say bisexual people can call themselves gay, but only in the context of same-gender relationships or attraction. 3% said bisexual people cannot call themselves gay. 1% said bisexual people can only call themselves gay when they aren’t in an M/F relationship. 5% gave other answers, often saying they have no opinion or don’t care, or that bisexual people can call themselves gay but it is confusing or erases their bisexuality.

When asked whether they’d like to say more about LGBT+ terms and privilege between LGBT+ people, hundreds of people gave personal answers. They are available in the survey responses.

8. Bisexual stereotypes and misconceptions.

When asked whether they feel a pressure not to conform to stereotypes about bisexual people: 40% of respondents say they do not feel pressure to not conform to stereotypes.

26% say they genuinely do not conform to any stereotypes about bisexuality. 19% say they lie about or hide their attraction to some genders or people to avoid conforming to stereotypes. 17% say they lie about or hide their interest in some sexual acts. 14% say they lie about or hide their interest in non-monogamy. 14% say they lie about or hide their interest in threesomes. 12% say they lie about or hide their gender preference. 5% say they avoid dressing or presenting in some ways to avoid fitting stereotypes.

16% say they call themselves “slutty”, a “bihet”, a “traitor”, or other instults targeted at bisexual people to reclaim them. 11% say they are open about their sexuality and interest in sex because they have been made to feel guilty about it due to their bisexuality. 8% say they purposefully fit stereotypes about bisexuality to rebel against the pressure to not fit them. 4% say they are open about their non-monogamy because they have been made to feel guilty about it due to their bisexuality.

4% of respondents gave other answers.

When asked whether they are polyamorous: 64% of respondents say they are not. 18% say they might be, but they are afraid to explore it due to stigma against polyamorous people. 16% say they are polyamorous. 12% say they might be, but they are afraid to explore it due to stigma against bisexual polyamorous people.

When asked whether they had ever cheated on a partner: 90% of respondents said they had not. 7% of respondents said they had. 3% gave an answer saying that they had, but indicated specific circumstances (it was a very long time ago, it was emotional cheating but they didn’t act on it, they were in an abusive relationship…).

When asked whether they had been approached for a threesome by a couple, when they had made no indication of interest in threesomes, being open to sexual advances, or interest in the people approaching them: 71% said they had not been approached for an unwanted threesome. 22% said they had, and found it upsetting. 7% said they had, but didn’t mind it. 5% gave other answers (often detailing experiences with unwarranted sexual advances).

When asked whether they had been assumed to be “available for sex” due to their bisexuality: 62% said they had not (several said “no” in the “other” answers, and said it was because they are not out). 36% said they had. 2% gave other answers, often saying they weren’t sure or didn’t know whether it was due to their bisexuality or other factors.

Out of 1252 women or female aligned people: 51% have never been told they are “available to men” due to their bisexuality. 42% have been told they are “available to men” and found it offensive. 5% consider themselves available to men. 2% have been told they are “available to men” and did not find it offensive.

Several individuals who do not identify as women or female-aligned have indicated that this has happened to them because they used to identify as women or female-aligned or are misgendered as women - most found it offensive.

Out of 486 men/male-aligned people: 62% say they have never been assimilated to straight men and/or benefit from straight men’s privileges. 35% say they have been assimilated to straight men and/or told they benefit from straight men’s privileges, and found this offensive. 2% say they have been assimilated to straight men and/or told theybenefit from straight men’s privileges, but did not find this offensive. Less than 1% (5 individuals) thought they are basically the same as a straight man.

5 men/male-aligned individuals said they believe they have not experienced this specifically because they are trans and are misgendered as women.

When asked whether, regardless of their gender, it was assumed that respondents were primarily or only attracted to men, and that their attraction to other genders was either fake, or unimportant and shallow:

71% said they had experienced this. 27% said they had not experienced this. 2% gave other responses, such as being unsure or detailing experiences with this stereotype.

Out of 482 men/male-aligned people: 41% have been assumed to be “really gay” and lying about their attraction to women. 55% have not faced this assumption. 4% gave other responses, with many expressing that this does not happen to them because they are misgendered as women, or that they’re not sure whether this has happened..

Several people who are not men/male-aligned indicated this happened to them when they previously identified as men or because they are misgendered as men.

Out of 1271 women/female-aligned people: 75% have been assumed to be “really straight”, or that their interest in women is just a phase, a sexual fetish, or experimenting. 25% have not faced this assumption. Less than 1% used the “other” answers to indicate they have faced the opposite assumption: they have been assumed to really be lesbians. Less than 1% gave other answers (mostly uncertainty).

Several people who are not women or female-aligned say they have faced this assumption when they previously identified as women/female-aligned or because they are misgendered as women.

When asked whether they have been made to feel that identifying as bisexual was regressive or less inclusive than other sexualities:

72% of respondents said they had. 26% said they had not. 3% said they had been told this but did not internalize it, or that they had not personally been told this but had witnessed this sentiment.

When asked whether they had been told that identifying as bisexual meant they were prejudiced against trans and nonbinary people: 73% of respondents said they had. 25% said they had not. 2% said they had not been directly told this, but had seen this being said.

Out of 919 trans and/or nonbinary people: 63% were made to feel that they could not be bisexual because “bisexuality doesn’t include trans people”. 37% were not made to feel this way. Less than 1% gave other answers, such as that they had heard or been told this but did not internalize it, they did not identify as trans or nonbinary when they were told this, or that they hadn’t identified as trans or nonbinary long enough to have experienced this.

When asked whether they had been made to feel or told that they should identify as a different label because of the way they experience bisexuality: 29% of respondents said they had not.

63% of respondents said they had been told they should identify as pansexual/omnisexual/polysexual instead. 19% said they had been told they should identify as asexual/aromantic/greysexual/demisexual/etc instead. 15% said they had been told they should identify as a lesbian instead. 6% said they had been told they should identify as a gay man instead. 6% gave other answers as to their experience being pushed to not identify as bisexual, which are available in the survey results.

When asked whether there was anything else relevant to the survey that they wanted to say, over 100 respondents gave personal answers that are availably in the survey results.

[natcaptor]

Long post warning lol

Just saw a post that made some good points about bi/pan discourse but also included some absolute bs takes that I wanted to talk about because I see them a lot:

[Image description: a screenshot of a tumblr post reading And to see celebrities like Miley Cyrus straight up saying “I hate the word bisexual because it’s putting me in a box.” Kehlani saying “I’m not bi, I” it cuts off the rest of this quote]

Hmmm okay. That’s not a take I love but i can see it being irritating to have someone feel that way about a label you feel connected to but let’s see what else they had to say

[image description: a screenshot of a tumblr post saying seeing all these pride merchandise for unnecessary “mga” ids like polysexual/omnisexual. Inaccurately redefining]

Hmmmmmm....interesting take. Maybe we should take a look at the bisexual maifesto y’all always tell us to read.

[image descriptions: two screenshots from the bisexual manifesto

The first image is a full page with the title Anything That Moves printed on the top left of the page.

The second image is a close up of part of the page from the previous image. It shows one paragraph that has been highlighted in light blue and purple. The part highlighted in light blue reads “Do not expect a clear cut definition of bisexuality to jump out from the pages. We bisexuals tend to define bisexuality in ways that are unique to our own individuality”.

The part highlighted in purple reads “There are as many definitions of bisexuality as there are bisexuals. Many of us choose not to label ourselves as anything at all, and find the word bisexual to be inadequate and too limiting.”]

This is not to say I agree with the idea that it’s acceptable to say that people who don’t identify with a term or find that term “inadequate” are still that thing, cause that’s incredibly disrespectful of their experiences and not how identity works. But it’s likely phrased like that because bisexual was the only term at the time that people knew to describe attraction to multiple/all genders, but it’s not anymore. And I just find it really interesting when bi people who have an issue with the pan lable, or the way pan people talk about ourselves, try to say “you don’t read the history! You’re ignoring the manifesto” while ignoring the manifesto themselves. The manifesto states that people who are attracted to multiple/all genders may find the term bisexual too limiting and choose not to use it. But apparently that is actually just internalized biphobia nowadays /s.

Similarly, I find the “we define bisexuality uniquely” part of the manifesto very interesting considering how hard so many people are going to say that all people who prefer other terms are “redefining bisexuality” as if the manifesto doesn’t say there is no clear cut definition. If labels can change and language can evolve overtime why are so many arguments against identities other than bisexual “you’re ignoring the history/definition/defining it wrong/we don’t need other labels”? Maybe you don’t need other labels.

I get that there are a lot of shitty definitions of bi and pan floating around but that isn’t the fault of pan people exclusively. How many bisexuals over the decades have defined their sexuality as “attraction to men and women”? Approximately a metric fuckton. Even if that’s not the only definition of bisexuality, you cannot blame only people outside of your community for that definition being spread.

And most people who panphobes are mad at for using terms like pan/omni would probably just call ourselves queer or say we don’t want labels otherwise. Like this shit always reeks of “all afab nonbinary people are actually just gnc women who don’t understand women’s history and have internalized misogyny” style logic and I’m so fucking sick of this conversation getting bogged down by it. It’s possible to talk about the parts of these terms history that have contributed to biphobia without being a hypocrite in order to shit talk pan/mspec people for not identifying the way you want us to.

(Manifesto screenshots and highlighting credit to @a-place-to-be-panace)

#I guess I’m kinda doing discourse now #I refuse to tag it as such tho because I’m not in the mood to get spammed by panphobes #this person also doesn’t believe in panphobia #so that’ll also be a post later #panphobia #I got the manifesto screenshots from someone else and I’ll edit later to credit

[mspec-culture-is]

hi sorry this isnt a 'mspec culture is' ask but i was wondering if its possible to be bi without being attracted to men? im a nonbinary person and im only attracted to non men but ive been seeing a lot of discourse saying you have to be attracted to people regardless of gender to be bi, and that sole attraction to non men is lesbian. im not comfortable with using the lesbian label but tbh i havent beenvery comfortable with the bi label recently with the amount of invalidation from within the community.

It’s a bit of a complicated answer, because in one hand there is labels that can fit the way you experience attraction, and in the other hand you do not have to feel pushed out of the bi community and we don’t want you to feel forced to identify as something else.

It is of course possible to be bi without being attracted to men. If you perceive your orientation as bi, for whichever reason, based on whichever definition of bisexuality, and it doesn’t include being attracted to men, guess what... you’re bi and not attracted to men. People who try to uphold rigid definitions of queer labels do not understand that the way humans work makes identity labels more like a heavily overlapping venn diagram than a series of neatly separated boxes.

But I understand how you might not feel at home in the community, and with the label anymore. If you want to try another label, you might like:

- Polysexuality. Defined as the attraction to multiple genders but never all of them. One of the four big mspec labels.

- The neptunic label. Defined as the attraction to only non-masc-aligned, which I’m not sure is the case for you based on your ask, but might work. I do not speak for neptunic people, but once again if you vibe with being neptunic and are in fact attracted to masc-aligned people just excluding men... no one can stop you and they probably shouldn’t try anyway.

As always, we’re not the encyclopedia of lgbtq+ identities, and there very well might be labels out there that fit the description that I didn’t mention. If these don’t fit you, I can only encourage you to search for more precise labels, or even create your own.

Note that you do not necessarily need to pick only one of these and stick with it forever. You can be ply and neptunic, bi and ply, neptunic and bi, all three together, any combination of these with added explanation of what it means to you personally, these plus other labels, etc. You can try them out, change, go back to previous ones, etc, etc. No rules.

Best of luck to you regardless!

#mod cyan #we apologize for how long this took #the mod triumvirate is having a bit of trouble communicating who started answering what #and things tend to sit in the drafts for a while #bi #bisexual #neptunic #neptunic mspec #ply #polysexual #not mspec culture

[nonbinarycomet]

New m-spec/multi flag

(This is a mirror from my Pillowfort post here, that can also be boosted on the Fediverse here.)

[Image description: A flag divided in four quadrants of the same size. The upper left quadrant is pink, the upper right quadrant is white, the bottom left quadrant is yellow and the bottom right quadrant is purple. End of image description.]

M-spec is short for "multi spectrum". The spectrum thing is just for emphasis, since both multi and m-spec are umbrella terms for people who are attracted to more than one gender/multiple genders.

The labels multi and m-spec have existed for a while. Their purpose is to decenter bi or bi+ as umbrella terms, because even if bi ranges from "weak attraction to one gender and strong attraction to another gender" to "attraction to all genders", a lot of pan, ply (polysexual/polyromantic/etc.), toren, trixen, penulti, omni and other people don't feel represented by bi. Even so, there are experiences and struggles common to all multiply-attracted people, so having an umbrella term is useful.

This term and flag includes m-spec people who are a-spec, who don't want to use labels, who use labels that don't specify which/how many genders one's attracted to, who use -flexible labels or who otherwise feel more attraction towards certain genders than others, whose attraction is fluid, who use many labels, who only use bi or pan as labels, who use labels that are typically seen as not m-spec and so on, as long as they are able to be attracted to more than one gender.

This flag is for all multi/m-spec people, not just multisexual/multiromantic. Multiqueerplatonic, multialterous, etc. are included.

There are already other flags for this, but most of them are not widely recognized or liked, and the most popular one is the combination of bi, ply and pan flags, which helps people recognize it for what it is, but doesn't help people who feel alienated by those labels.

The design of this flag is meant to be different from most pride flags so it's easier to recognize for colorblind people among other common pride flags, while still being easy to reproduce with fabric or while drawing, since there are no complicated symbols or shapes.

Color meanings:

Pink: Represents attraction in general, as well as passion. It's about m-spec people being united because of their attraction to more than one gender. Can also represent people who feel like they are just "attracted by (some) people" or who don't specify how their attraction works.

Pink is, after all, a color widely used for sexuality and love.

White: Represents the possibility of being able to be attracted to all genders. Also the possibility of having an attraction to multiple genders that isn't fluid; for instance, just because someone dates a nonbinary person and later a woman doesn't mean that their attraction changed.

White is the combination of all colors of light (so, all genders), and is also achromatic; you can't change the hue of pure white.

Light orange: Represents the diversity of m-spec people. For instance: a lot of trans people, especially nonbinary people, are m-spec; a lot of a-spec people are m-spec; a lot of non-monogamous people are m-spec; there are lots of different possibilities of labels when you are m-spec; but you don't need to be those things or use other labels to be m-spec.

Yellow and certain shades of orange remind me of the Sun. The Sun is strong and basically impossible to ignore; diversity makes a community strong, and the diversity of the m-spec community is hard to ignore.

Purple: Represents the possibility of not being able to be attracted to all genders (while still being attracted to more than one), and the possibility of having fluid attraction.

Purple is the color of change. It's also used in flags such as toren and trixen (both m-spec orientations that don't include attraction to all genders), and its meaning in other flags is sometimes both binary genders/a combination of them (so: more than one gender, but just a few) or nonbinary people (so: a large group of genders, but not all).

I know that maybe not all nuances of m-spec identity are represented here, and they don't all have their own color, but I wanted to have something broader and more meaningful than "attraction to X, to Y and to Z", while still easy to memorize/draw/produce.

This flag was made by me (Aster), with input from other m-spec people at a Discord server.

A full version of this flag is here, and a more saturated version of it (for physical flags/merchandise, for instance) can be found here.

Feel free to spread it around!

#multi flag #pluralian #multi #mspec #m-spec

[blackstarlight6]

Ok so, here come Pennywise lgbtq+ headcanons because I'm laying in bed at 3 am with no desire to go to sleep and it's pride month and I want to being a queer person myself so sue me /lh

𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎𒊹︎︎︎

No one, and I repeat, NO ONE is as gender fluid as Penny. He mainly goes with He/Him pronouns because his favorite forms consists in him playing a male human that is a clown, but doesn't call himself a male and feels totally comfortable in any skin and shape, also because he doesn't apply social constructs and refuses to understand them being a "superior being" and only uses them to better interact with his preys. Also there are some periods of time when Penny will eventually use She/Her pronouns, especially when being more close to her original spider form or treating delicate topics like pregnancy (Penny was supposedly pregnant but it was cut out the movies so draw your own conclusions). Ultimately tho when in a more... Serious context, while being confronted by the Losers or in general when it gets royally pissed or shows his demonic alien solemn side Penny would pass on to It/Its pronouns, also to feel a bit more intimidating if that makes sense

Penny may seem homophobic and would probably say slurs and do hate crimes or make others commit it, but all for the sake of grotesque depictions of disgust, terror and visual fear of an LGBT person and to better fuel the sense of danger in Derry. I in fact see him as being either pansexual or maybe Bi with a preference or multiple ones if he ever finds himself being attracted physically or romantically to a human

He genuinely ships Reddie and is fully aware it's Canon... That's why he killed Eddie, he fully knew it would've been effective to destroy Richie's spirit. But seeing as how he somehow grew fond of the Losers in a twisted way there was a little piece of his mind that went on to imagine how their relationship could've evolved

It is said that Pennywise always simulated emotions, and only ever felt amusement during his life, but then when the Losers came along and defied him he felt fear and anger for the first time. Having this much trouble processing real emotions I feel he would be strictly monogamous (I am myself and I see it this way)

Then again him being not human and being out of the whole social construct thing he would be really open to polyamorous relationships, and making sure every party in it is cool with it and doesn't screw around. Both are possible in my opinion, pick your favorite one, they're both valid

If you happen to be Bi, Pan, Omni or Polysexual he will most likely use his shape-shifting abilities to surprise you from time to time so that you don't expect it everyday. One day being your boyfriend, one day being your girlfriend... You never know if you're getting the standard pack clown boyfriend or clown girl with mommy milkers in the package

If you introduce him to the whole Pride thing he will get ecstatic over it. He may also do his make-up accordingly because of all the different meanings and pretty colors.

Would also probably mawl to death those heavily problematic creators that made the lgbtq community look bad or caused internal problems

Penny would totally like drag, I mean he looks like a walking drag artist himself, or at least a person with a high capability of doing so. I just think he would be fascinated with all those aspects of human eccentric culture he always ignored but somehow reflects him

He would be dumbfounded at the discrimination aro and ace people get, not being able to comprehend how the fuck it is possible to be such a caveman and backwards and only fueling his hatred towards humanity-

Ops I'm projecting a little bit there, carrying on

Would totally perform at a pride, MAYBE under disguise if you convince him not to alarm the government so that he doesn't get obliterated by area 51, using his dancing and contorsionist abilities to make it unforgettable and steal the spotlight to everyone else being an egocentric little bitch

This is all I had for now. I'm gonna do more random stuff eventually but this is all I could think of for now... Which I mean, it's no tragedy considering I'm sure no one will see this. And with this I tune out to sleep... Which is probably time I did so

TL;DR: I'm going on a delirium on what I think lgbtq headcanons for Pennywise from IT would be because it's pride month, where I am it's too hot to sleep and I'm also on my period and getting sentimental over a fictional killer clown.

#Pennywise #it #stephen king it #headcanons #lgbtq positivity #pride month #tw clowns #drag artist #Lgbtq Pennywise