Pansexuality Explained: What It Means to Be Pansexual

Pansexuality is an emotional, sexual, or romantic attraction to people of all gender identities and sexual orientations. The prefix “pan” means "all" in Greek, so people who identify as pansexual are attracted to people of all genders, including those who are cisgender, transgender, genderqueer, agender, gender-fluid, and non-binary.

Pansexuality encompasses a variety of experiences. Consider the following ways that pansexual people may experience their identities:

1. 1. Pansexuality can be about openness. Many pansexual people identify with the term because it implies an inclusiveness that opens them up to relationships with different people of different genders. Pansexual people may have relationships with people of other sexual orientations, including those who are asexual or demisexual.
2. 2. Pansexual people may still have preferences. Some pansexual people identify as gender-blind, meaning they are equally attracted to all genders. Others, some of whom identify as omnisexual, have a preference, finding themselves more attracted to certain genders.
3. 3. Pansexuality can be about more than sex. Pansexuality does not stipulate what kind of relationships pansexual people might desire. Some people may experience their pansexuality as an emotional attraction, while for others, sexual attraction and sexual relationships are a big part of their identity.

There can be a lot of overlap between the term bisexual and the term pansexual, especially since the exact meaning of each identity is up to the individual who chooses to adopt the labels. Bisexuality generally refers to sexual or romantic attraction to people of more than one gender identity, while pansexuality refers to sexual or romantic attraction to people of all genders. Pansexuality can thus be though of as falling under the umbrella of bisexuality, along other identities including polysexual—attracted to many but not all genders—omnisexual, queer, fluid, heteroflexible, homoflexible, and more.

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