On December 8th we will celebrate Pansexual and Panromantic Pride Day. Every category in the LGBTQ+ universe offers very interesting perspectives, and the “pan” categories are no exception.
I’ve heard people outside of our LGBTQ+ world say, “oh no, another celebration?” or “another category?” Well, yes, every aspect of diversity deserves to be celebrated and the reasons for celebrating pansexuality and Panromantics are very peculiar.
The prefix “pan” comes from Greek meaning “every” or “all”. Pansexual people (or “pan” people) feel attracted not to a specific gender, but to people regardless of gender. Panromantic people are very similar, only the attraction they feel is not at the sexual level, but they feel romantically attracted to a person without the need of feeling sexual attraction or even being interested in any kind of sexual interaction whatsoever.
Right there we understand that the dimensions of gender diversity are far more than they think, and it’s not about a piece of meat you were born with, but includes dimensions like romantic attraction. Some may think that for queer people it’s all about sex, but it’s not! I’ve met many asexual, queer people who are not interested in sex and build their relationships based on other important things, for instance, those who identify as Sapiosexual (people who feel attracted to intelligence), because who isn’t, right? But wait, how come they can like just anyone?
Well, that’s not exactly what it is, they’re not attracted to just anyone, but gender doesn’t make a difference once they’re focusing on other things that they consider more profound and important. Some also mix up being polyamorous with being pansexual/panromantic, but it’s not the same; pan people could be poly, sure, but they could be monogamous as well. It’s interesting to do this exercise before jumping to conclusions because it opens people’s minds to other possibilities.
Gender, in the end, is like a suit that we wear throughout our lives, and some suits make us more comfortable or represent us better than others, that’s all. We’ll all take out our suits when we leave this world. How wonderful to feel attraction for someone regardless of their suit! How great it would be to feel attracted to someone because of their kindness, their intelligence, their compassion, their drive to achieve things in life, their spirituality, their emotional intelligence, or their loving heart? and the list could continue. Even feeling sexual attraction for a person regardless of their gender doesn’t violate any logic and it makes a lot of sense.
Pansexual and panromantic people see through that suit and see other qualities, so they are probably the most inclusive persons there are and an example to other people who are not Pan. One last question could be “Is that not the same as being bisexual”? No, because there are not only two genders.
Even if we felt no such attraction, could we learn a lesson of inclusivity from Pansexual and Panromantic people and try to find out other qualities in people?
On December 8th we will celebrate Pansexual and Panromantic Pride Day. Every category in the LGBTQ+ universe offers very interesting perspectives, and the “pan” categories are no exception.
I’ve heard people outside of our LGBTQ+ world say, “oh no, another celebration?” or “another category?” Well, yes, every aspect of diversity deserves to be celebrated and the reasons for celebrating pansexuality and Panromantics are very peculiar.
The prefix “pan” comes from Greek meaning “every” or “all”. Pansexual people (or “pan” people) feel attracted not to a specific gender, but to people regardless of gender. Panromantic people are very similar, only the attraction they feel is not at the sexual level, but they feel romantically attracted to a person without the need of feeling sexual attraction or even being interested in any kind of sexual interaction whatsoever.
Right there we understand that the dimensions of gender diversity are far more than they think, and it’s not about a piece of meat you were born with, but includes dimensions like romantic attraction. Some may think that for queer people it’s all about sex, but it’s not! I’ve met many asexual, queer people who are not interested in sex and build their relationships based on other important things, for instance, those who identify as Sapiosexual (people who feel attracted to intelligence), because who isn’t, right? But wait, how come they can like just anyone?
Well, that’s not exactly what it is, they’re not attracted to just anyone, but gender doesn’t make a difference once they’re focusing on other things that they consider more profound and important. Some also mix up being polyamorous with being pansexual/panromantic, but it’s not the same; pan people could be poly, sure, but they could be monogamous as well. It’s interesting to do this exercise before jumping to conclusions because it opens people’s minds to other possibilities.
Gender, in the end, is like a suit that we wear throughout our lives, and some suits make us more comfortable or represent us better than others, that’s all. We’ll all take out our suits when we leave this world. How wonderful to feel attraction for someone regardless of their suit! How great it would be to feel attracted to someone because of their kindness, their intelligence, their compassion, their drive to achieve things in life, their spirituality, their emotional intelligence, or their loving heart? and the list could continue. Even feeling sexual attraction for a person regardless of their gender doesn’t violate any logic and it makes a lot of sense.
Pansexual and panromantic people see through that suit and see other qualities, so they are probably the most inclusive persons there are and an example to other people who are not Pan. One last question could be “Is that not the same as being bisexual”? No, because there are not only two genders.
Even if we felt no such attraction, could we learn a lesson of inclusivity from Pansexual and Panromantic people and try to find out other qualities in people?
