(thread) it's not that i'm against people IDing as pansexual. it's that wayyyy too many people have a very BS definition of pansexual vs bisexual. the term is often used because of a general misunderstanding of what bisexual means

"being pan means i date men & women, but also trans men & women and nonbinary people" there are so many issues with this statement.

1.placing trans people in a separate category is transphobic. trans women should not be separated from cis women. trans men should not be separated from cis men.if you like women, that includes trans women,because - you guessed it - trans women are women. same goes for trans men.

2. BISEXUALITY IS NOT INHERENTLY TRANSPHOBIC. saying that pan people will date trans people but bi people won't is ridiculous. that boils down my entire identity to transphobia. it's completely untrue and, frankly, biphobic. bisexuality has ALWAYS included trans people.

3. bisexuality has also ALWAYS included nonbinary people. see this quote from the bisexual manifesto published in queer compilation "anything that moves" in 1990:

"Do not assume that bisexuality is binary or duogamous in nature .... In fact, don’t assume that there are only two genders."
http://www.bisexualorganizingproject.org/whats-up/bi-pan-and-the-insufficiency-of-prefixes

"but bi means two! that means two genders!" get out of here with that ancient rhetoric. the bisexual community abandoned that long ago. most of us believe that the "two" is (1) attraction to our own gender, and (2) attraction to other genders.

many people also say that the difference is that, for pan people, genitals play no part in their attraction, and they are instead attracted to the person as a whole - you may have heard "hearts not parts!"

this rubs me the wrong way too. it seems to imply that bisexuality is inherently shallow, focusing on bodies and genitals instead of the people attached to them/"hearts." it seems to imply that bisexuality is only about sex, whereas pansexuality includes love.

it should go without saying that this isn't true. my bisexuality is about so much more than sex.

it's about recognizing and experiencing the beauty of all genders, all bodies, and all of the lives that go with them. it's about having the capacity to love without the restrictions of gender that society places on us. and it's about so much more than that, too.

i'm not telling anyone to stop identifying as pansexual. i'm also not trying to say that pansexuality is inherently biphobic. what i AM saying is that most people have a misunderstanding of what bisexuality and pansexuality are.

the term pansexual has existed since 1914, when it was coined by Freud. its usage was scattered throughout queer&alternative communities throughout the 1900s. however, it had a very different meaning than it does today - often referring to one being open to all sexual experiences

its current meaning came to be around the late 90s/early 2000s, where it became an alternative to bisexuality intended to be clearly inclusive of all gender identities. https://www.them.us/story/inqueery-pansexual/amp

however, as we know, bisexuality was already inclusive.

"but kat!" you say, "doesn't that mean that bisexuality and pansexuality are basically the same thing?"

ding ding ding!

there are subtle differences between pansexuality and bisexuality. essentially, pansexuality is used to state very openly one's acceptance of/attraction to trans & nonbinary people. NB people are included in bisexuality, yes, but pansexuality states this more clearly.

what's important is to stop viewing bisexuality and pansexuality as extremely different, almost opposite identities - and instead understand them as two sides of the same coin, more similar than they are different.

for many people attracted to multiple genders, the term they choose comes down to personal preference. both choices are completely valid & both are important parts of the LGBT+ community.

just please stop pushing the rhetoric that pan is "hearts not parts" and bisexuality is not. it's harmful to both sides and serves to divide our community, instead of uniting us as we should be.