Pansexual people – people who are attracted to others regardless of their gender identity or biological sex.
Panromantic people – people who are romantically (not necessarily sexually) attracted to others regardless of their gender identity or biological sex.
What is useful to know, is that pansexual and bi-sexual is not the same. There are similarities, but there are some unique differences which are useful to be aware of. According the Mental Health website Papyrus, Bisexual means to be attracted to your own gender and other genders (some people think it means to be attracted to both men and women, but this isn’t always the case and can include non-binary people). Pansexual means to be attracted to all genders so someone’s gender doesn’t factor into attraction when someone is pan.
It is really important that as a society we try to understand everyone’s sexuality, gender identity and parts of themselves with whom even they are trying to align with as they journey through life. Life is very much a journey that we are all on together and having an awareness around the challenges and successes that we each have in discovering ourselves can really help us move forward – together.
Asking questions when we’re unsure, doing a little research and talking openly can be the first steps in understanding what we don’t understand.
To find out more about pansexual people and panromantic people, including information on some very famous people who identify as such click here,