What Is Pansexual and How Is It Different From Being Bisexual?

Understanding gender identities that extend beyond straight, gay, bi and trans can get confusing. We know.

As people become more sexually fluid and gender fluid, the number of terms to describe these varying identities also increase. And with celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Jazz Jennings defining themselves as pansexual, many are asking for explanations.

What is pansexual? Well, for starters, pansexuality is categorized under the bi umbrella. But, the terms are still slightly different.

And because we know this can get confusing, we’ve compiled a list of explanations from Reddit users who identify as pansexual.

What is pansexual and why do we need two terms?

“Bisexual people are attracted to both men and women.

Pansexual people are attracted to people regardless of their gender or sex, and describe themselves as ‘gender blind.'”

In order to understand the term “pansexual,” you also need to understand that “bisexual” isn’t technically limited to just male and female.

“Bisexuality [is] not necessarily [about] attraction to men and women. The current definition that I most commonly see is ‘attraction to two or more genders,’ and those two genders don’t necessarily have to be male and female. Pansexuality however, is the attraction to all genders, or attraction regardless of gender.

“To be perfectly honest, a lot of people could use either label, but they choose based on preference.

“I chose pansexual because I felt my attraction to non-binary people was just as important as my attraction to men and women. And I’m more attracted to a personality – the gender of the person isn’t super important to me.”

Sometimes “bisexual” is just the more popular term.

“One of the reasons I’ve seen given is that the meaning of bisexual is more widely known. So if it ever comes up, you’re less likely to have to explain what the term means.

“Also, some bi people also haven’t heard of the term pan (I used to identify as bisexual before I heard of pansexual and realized it fit me better.”

Saying you’re bisexual may be easier for the non-queer community to understand; but using it for that sole purpose can be harmful.

Despite evolving definitions of the term bisexual, many straight, cisgender people still believe it means solely liking the two common genders: men and women.

“I’m in the same boat – even before I realized I was non-binary, I felt the term bisexual was too exclusionary for my taste.”

But as many Reddit users explained, the term “bisexual” excludes too many groups of people.

“Even though a lot of bi people are still attracted to ‘enbies‘ [non-binary people] and use the definition ‘attracted to two or more genders,’ there are still a lot of people who think bisexual means ‘attraction to men and women.’ So it didn’t feel right, and then when I started questioning my ID it became even more important to me.”

At the end of the day, though, no matter the term you choose to use, gender identity is about doing what feels right for you. Some people choose not to label their gender or sexuality, and that’s completely fine too. Hopefully in the future we’ll expand our vocabulary even more to create different labels and communities.