Mrs. Gendered illustrated this cute guide to some of the definitions of different sexual orientations and gender identities. This is in alphabetical order so you can easily refer to it if you are confused about anything. She drew one for each day of Pride Month. The artist did note that not every identity can be included in every post. If you aren’t represented, please don’t feel left out, we support every identity here. ❤️🏳️🌈
Artist: Mrs. Gendered
(via: Trans Army)
(This site is LGBTQ+ friendly. We will not tolerate any hate speech, discrimination or bigotry in the comments below. Thank you.)
Please note the creator is a GUY, they are trans-masc, the username Mrs. Gendered is a pun off of being misgendered
I’m still confused on the difference between bisexual and pansexual, this describes them as the same with a little different wording. I was once told that pansexual is that you’re rarely attracted to more than one gender, but can become attracted to another gender. Whereas bisexual is a constant attraction to more the one gender. This says bisexual is attracted to more than 1 gender, and pansexual as attracted to any gender, “more than 1” can equal any and all, so I’m lost.
One thing that usually doesn’t get brought up in very quick definitions of the terms is that bi and omni people can have different standards based on gender. For example, let’s say that someone who likes all genders is attracted to muscular women, but not muscular men – they prefer men to be more slim and androgynous. This person would be bi and omni, but not pan. Sometimes, attraction also feels different depending on which gender the person is, like it’s multiple attractions to others that apply to different genders.
Pan people, on the other hand, experience attraction regardless of gender. So while bi and omni people can have different standards based on gender, pan people don’t. If they like muscles, they will like people who are muscular regardless of gender. It’s a single attraction to others, which feels the same and applies the same to everyone.
And for completion’s sake, the difference between bi and omni people is that bi people are attracted to more than one gender (but not necessarily all) while omni people are attracted to all genders. For example, a bi person could be attracted to men and non-masculine enbies, but not women. Or attracted to men and women, but not non-masculine and non-feminine enbies. That being said, bi is an umbrella term, so someone can describe themselves as both bi and omni or bi and pan.
As for being attracted to more than one gender, but rarely, the usual term used is heteroflexible or homoflexible, depending on what their primary attraction is. A man who is usually attracted to women but sometimes, rarely, to men would be heteroflexible; a man who’s usually attracted to men but sometimes, rarely, to women would be homoflexible.
Thank you. This has always confused me a little. As does the levels of demisexual or greysexual. I’m demi, but am usually attracted to people born male, whether they identify as cis men, male NB, or trans women. (Yes, trans women are still women but I’m more likely to be attracted to one than a cishet woman. I wish I understood why)
Some people think Demi means I’m pan, but need a relationship first and if that’s not the case then I’m not actually demi, I’m “straight with extra steps.” That’s one of the many quotes that have ben used against me, along with, “white girl who wants to feel included” because my current relationship (of almost 15 years) is straight-passing because my partner has a bunch of trauma that keeps them from presenting as anything other than male and white, even though they are actually neither.
Every term has tons of nuance, and it’s hard to understand them all. But our job as people who respect others is to try,, even if it doesn’t seem to make sense for whatever reason.
So, one of the other things to consider was that pansexual was originally coined by someone who genuinely believed that being bisexual was transphobic, for convoluted reasons which basically had them convince themselves that the sexuality was deliberately excluding trans and nb people, which is why the two are so closely linked, because at their most simplistic level, they’re the same. My tongue-in-cheek explanation (approved by my pan partner) is that ‘pan people are more bi than bi people, but not as bi as omni’