i’ve always been really confused by the whole pan/bi conflict… from my understanding, i thought that bi = attraction to two genders, and pan = attraction to multiple genders? but idk because different people say different things (which is understandable because everyone has their own unique experiences!) but it just makes me really disoriented/discouraged in trying to figure out my own identity ☹

frogmp3:

pansexual is a term which became popular to contest the term bisexual. some people got real stuck on bi = 2 and decided that instead of clarifying that bisexuals (and gay men and lesbians and even some straight people i can only presume) have been attracted to and in relationships with people identifying outside of the gender binary since the term’s iteration, it would be better to create a new, highly redundant term. realistically, practically, materially, whatever adverb you want to use to describe it, bisexuals and pansexuals are attracted to the same pool of people and experience identical oppression due to that (not factoring in other axis of oppression which are important to consider- especially because men and women experience biphobia vastly differently). the only difference is bisexual is a well established term in our community with lots of history and meaning and pansexual is much less so. pansexuality as a label is hmm a bit transphobic by most definitions or descriptions told to me by pansexuals, for example, “hearts not parts”, “i like boys, girls, and transgender people”, and the like are things i often hear not just said by pansexual people occasionally, which would not be definitive of their identity, but said to describe the identity as a whole. obviously those are both transphobic statements. that being said cis bisexuals are just as prone as any cis person to being transphobic on an individual level and to perpetuating transphobia, and i don’t want to imply otherwise. long story short i don’t like what the term implies about bisexual people and how the term ignores LGBT history. i’m not going to fight anybody about their personal use of it but i refuse to like co-identify with it or keep how i feel about it to myself