Pansexuality and Identity Terms

Cards · 50

Pansexuality

Sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction toward people regardless of their sex or gender identity.

Etymology of 'Pan-'

Derived from the ancient Greek prefix 'pan-', meaning 'all' or 'every'.

Gender-blind attraction

A common description for pansexuality where gender plays no role in who a person is attracted to.

Pansexuality vs. Bisexuality

Bisexuality means attraction to more than one gender; pansexuality specifically denotes attraction regardless of gender.

Sigmund Freud's 'Pan-sexualism'

An early 20th-century psychoanalytic term asserting that human behavior and instinct are primarily driven by sexual desire.

Emergence of modern pansexuality

Gained broader cultural usage in the 1990s and 2000s to explicitly include trans, non-binary, and agender people.

Pansexual Pride Flag colors

Consists of three horizontal stripes: pink (women), yellow (non-binary/gender-non-conforming), and cyan (men).

Creation of the Pansexual Flag

Created around 2010 on the internet to give pansexual individuals a distinct symbol from bisexuality.

Omnisexuality

Attraction to people of all genders, but unlike pansexuality, gender is recognized and factored into the attraction.

Polysexuality

Attraction to many, but not necessarily all, gender identities.

Bisexual Umbrella

A conceptual framework grouping plurisexual orientations like pansexual, omnisexual, and polysexual under bisexuality.

Plurisexuality

An umbrella term for any sexual orientation characterized by attraction to more than one gender.

Gender Identity

An individual's deeply held, internal sense of their own gender, which may or may not align with their sex assigned at birth.

Sexual Orientation

A person's enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attraction to other people.

Gender Identity vs. Sexual Orientation

Gender identity is about who you are, whereas sexual orientation is about who you are attracted to.

Non-binary

An umbrella term for gender identities that do not fit solely into the binary categories of male or female.

Genderqueer

A gender identity that embraces fluidity and rejects rigid binary definitions of man and woman.

Agender

A identity describing someone who does not identify with having any gender or feels genderless.

Genderfluid

A gender identity that shifts and fluctuates over time between different genders.

Cisgender

A term describing individuals whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Transgender

A term describing individuals whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Two-Spirit

A contemporary umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe diverse gender and sexual identities.

Bi-erasure

The tendency to ignore, remove, or re-categorize evidence of bisexuality and other plurisexual identities in culture.

Pan-erasure

The dismissal or invalidation of pansexuality as either 'just bisexuality' or a trendy phase.

Hearts Not Parts

A popular community slogan emphasizing personality and connection over anatomy in pansexual attraction.

Panromantic

Experiencing romantic attraction to individuals regardless of their gender identity, regardless of sexual attraction.

Split Attraction Model (SAM)

A framework distinguishing between different types of attraction, such as romantic, sexual, and aesthetic.

Asexuality

A sexual orientation characterized by a lack of sexual attraction toward others of any gender.

Panromantic Demisexual

Someone who is romantically attracted to any gender, but only feels sexual attraction after forming a deep bond.

Bisexual Manifesto (1990)

An influential text by the Boston Parents group stating bisexuality does not assume only two genders.

Fluidity in sexuality

The concept that romantic or sexual attractions can evolve or shift across an individual's lifespan.

Monosexual

Attracted to only one sex or gender, such as gay, lesbian, or strictly heterosexual individuals.

Heteronormativity

The cultural assumption that heterosexuality and binary gender roles are the default, normal human state.

Cisnormativity

The assumption that all human beings are, or should be, cisgender by default.

Intersex

A general term for bodily variations in chromosomes, hormones, or genitals that do not fit typical male or female norms.

Sex assigned at birth (SAAB)

The designation of an infant's sex (male or female) made at birth, typically based on external anatomy.

Pansexual visibility day

Observed annually on May 24th to celebrate and raise awareness about the pansexual community.

Kinsey Scale

A 1948 rating scale (0 to 6) representing a spectrum of sexual behavior between exclusively heterosexual and homosexual.

Klein Sexual Orientation Grid

A multidimensional model developed in 1978 evaluating seven variables of sexuality across past, present, and ideal states.

Aromanticism

A romantic orientation characterized by experiencing little to no romantic attraction toward others.

Demisexuality

A sexual orientation where a person feels sexual attraction only after developing a close emotional connection.

Graysexual

An orientation falling in the gray area between strict asexuality and allosexuality.

Allosexual

A person who experiences sexual attraction toward others; the antonym of asexual.

Gender binary

The classification of gender into two distinct, opposite forms of masculine and feminine.

Gender expression

The external presentation of gender through clothing, grooming, mannerisms, name, and pronouns.

Misgendering

Referring to someone using terms, pronouns, or gender markers that do not correspond to their gender identity.

Queer

Historically a slur, now widely reclaimed as an inclusive umbrella term for non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities.

SOGIE

An acronym standing for Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression used in legal and human rights fields.

Intersectionality in LGBTQ+ contexts

The concept that sexual and gender identities interact with race, class, disability, and other social factors.

Pansexual community recognition

Grew dramatically in the 2010s through online communities, pop culture representation, and pride marches.