Happy Pansexual and Panromantic Visibility Day!
The word pansexuality has Greek origins. Pan means ‘all’.
To be pansexual is to have a sexual or romantic attraction which is not limited by gender, while to be panromantic is the same except without the sexual attraction.
For pansexual folk, attraction is not dependent on gender; pan people are attracted to the person before anything else. However, this does not mean that they’re attracted to anyone and everyone! Similar to how a straight cis female isn’t attracted to every man, or how a cis gay man isn’t attracted to every single male.
Pansexuality is different to bisexuality, but the two can sometimes overlap.
As we said above, pan means “all”, so pansexuality is an attraction to all gender identities or attraction regardless of gender identity, while bisexuality is the attraction to multiple gender identities.
Pan people can be attracted to people who are male, female, non-binary or any other gender.
Pansexual people may sometimes refer to themselves as gender-blind, meaning that gender and sex are neither requirements nor determining factors in their romantic or sexual interests.
Some pan folk may use pansexual and bisexual interchangeably, as pansexuality does fall under the bisexual umbrella.
As with all LGBTQ+ identities and humans in general, we’re all completely unique but with some to many overlapping qualities. Understanding and celebrating those differences is what helps LGBTQ+ people empower the community and each other.
Understanding each other is also a key factor in eliminating stigma and prejudice, the benefits of which help improve LGBTQ+ mental health for everyone.
Earlier this year The Trevor Project, a non-profit suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people, published findings of its 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ youth mental health. Pansexual young people made up 20% of the survey sample, which found:
53% of pansexual youth reported that they seriously considered suicide and 21% reported they attempted suicide in the past year.
66% of pansexual youth reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety and 79% reported experiencing symptoms of depression.
36% of pansexual youth reported that they have been physically threatened or harmed due to their sexual orientation.
69% of pansexual youth reported that they had experienced discrimination based on their sexual orientation.
Pansexuality is definitely not a new thing. The word has been in the Oxford English Dictionary since at least the early 1900s, and been applied with current definition since at least the late 1960s.
Lot’s of celebrities and people in the public eye identify as pansexual, including:
JoJo Siwa
Miley Cyrus
as well as Bob the Drag Queen, Jannelle Monet, Asia Kate Dillon, Jazz Jennings, Angel Haze, Yungblud and a ton more!
Happy #PanVisibilityDay 💖💛💙 pic.twitter.com/KQErHkEc9Q
— GLUE Magazine : LGBTQ+ news (@thegluemagazine) May 24, 2022
