Bi or pansexual

[dawnfromgavinandstacey]

I've just been blocked by someone that I know via friends and family. They are semi famous.

They are out and gay and happy.

They have just come out on Instagram as pansexual. I have asked how is it different to being bi.

I am bi.

I'm really sorry if I'm offending anyone but to me it's the same.

You like the person. Doesn't matter how they identify you just fancy them. For whatever reason. You just do. You like them.

I've been blocked and asked snottily if I get the difference.

I will be honest. No I don't. You like who you like. Regardless.

What is the difference. You like who you like. Regardless of if they are a a man or or women.

Have I missed something here?

When i first asked DS the difference between bi and pan he replied "why are my saucepans sticky?!"

I don’t believe in gender so would use bi.

Isn't the difference that bisexual people are attracted to men who identify as men, and women who identify as women.

If that's the case, I spent my teens/early 20s bi sexualling wrong.

Attracted to people I found attractive regardless of how they identify. Still class myself as bi sexual.

Well you made me laugh. 😂

Exactly! You either like the same sex, the opposite sex or both. That's it!

MN really isn't the place to ask this question, given the overlap with issues of gender that so frequently and tediously come up.

There's a huge amount of overlap between being bi and pan, and no universally agreed upon distinction between the two; many bi people include trans and non binary people.

I understood pansexuality to mean an attraction to a personality, not a body. I.e. it's completely incidental whether that person is male or female. Whereas bisexuals are attracted to males and females because of their sex (in the same way that straight men are attracted to women because of their sex, or lesbians are attracted to women because of their sex). I can see the distinction in theory but I'm not sure how it's actually relevent in practice when there are only two sexes.

I hadn't really thought of it as a label that was purely aimed at including men and women identifying as trans or non-binary but a few PPs have mentioned that.

I mean ultimately only we can know who or which groups we are generally attracted to.

It isn't anyone else's business or right to disprove our lived experiences or inner feelings. If someone tells you they are pansexual then you accept that is the label they've given themself regardless of what label you have given yourself.

If you're putting yourself out there on the dating scene it's better to be honest about who you generally are attracted to, saves wasting time tbh. Also with bi-erasure and pansexuality being more 'seen' I can see why younger people are leaning more towards this.

They came out and your first reaction was asking snotty questions quibbling over terminology

I think they were already out. They're now saying they're pansexual. So this was not the ops response to them coming out.

They identify as pan. It has a lot of overlap with bi. So what?

They were simply asking what it meant.

It is sad that your reaction to this is to nitpick them over vocabularly rather than just being supportive or minding your own business.

They announced it on Instagram. I think that means they're making it everyone's business.

Bi and pan are the same. Whoever above wrote bi people were only attracted to cis people was talking crap - sorry.

This is from Stonewall: Bi people may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms, including, but not limited to, bisexual, pan, queer, and some other non-monosexual and non-monoromantic identities

Today I came across the term "skoliosexual"
Apparently it means "attracted to non binary people".

This is where I get off the Merry go Round folks.

Have fun 🙄

well, this person was already out as gay so this was more of a refinement than a coming out- plus, since this person made an announcement on social media presumably they were expecting some kind of engagement
I don't think asking how pan is different from bi is snotty quibbling

I am disappointed to learn it doesn't mean an attraction to people with scoliosis...

It seems to me that pansexual people don't conform to the gender binary so reject the term bisexual for themselves since they can also fall for people outside of the binary that makes up the "bi" in "bisexual."

I was too. 😂

Pangender rather than pansexual would be more accurate if looking for a term that covers all genders.

As “pan” means “all” and there are only two sexes.

Non-monoromantic identities. Is it just me or is there a point where the whole thing is beyond ridiculous. Someone must be making money out of manipulating these people into claiming labels.
Be attracted to someone, and if they reciprocate, get together. Why the blinking hoo haa about everything for attention?

My understanding is that the “bi” in “bisexual” suggests attraction to (and in some cases recognition of) only two sexes. “Pansexual” is a bit of a broader sweep, implying men and women and alongside this the explicit inclusion of people who fall outside of the gender binary.

now Ive read some comments by people totally vexed as to why anyone would come out on their social media at all. Well there are many reasons why someone might feel compelled to come out in Insta but not least because: loads of people do all their hooking up via social media! I’m elderly and past it so it’s a whole other world to me but I’m told it’s how the young folk do it. Post some semi saucy stories and then wait for the DMs to roll in! So of course they need to let everyone on their feed know who they like to get off with 🤭

Well I don't know how old you are, but when I was teen/ younger you were either gay, straight or bi.
But you were also either male or female so "gender identity" didn't come into it.

My friend had a girlfriend who wanted to be a boy. She wore 'boys' clothes and used a shortened version of her name that could be a girls or boys name (think Samantha known as Sam)
But they classed themselves as Lesbians and "Sam" used she/her pronouns. We've all knew Sam was a girl even if she didn't want to be.

Gender, sex and sexuality are different things, and the suffix -gender refers to one's gender not sexuality (e.g. cisgender, transgender, non-binary gender) and so pangender would be one of the non-binary gender identities.

No one - not one single person conforms entirely to the gender binary. (Not talking about biological sex here)
Rendering the term redundant I should say.

Does anyone else think that all these labels and little boxes people are putting themselves in are creating more division than ever?! Can't people just be people, who ever they fancy?!

i'm not really sure how it's any of your business it's not your place to message them about what they choose to identify as, you could have either googled or posted on here without the message

me too!
somebody clearly feeling fragile