Bisexual vs Pansexual

What’s the difference? Is there one?

There is and there isn’t.

A lot of import and significance rests upon the sexual-orientation identifiers we choose to use to identify ourselves, our partners and the orientations and genders of others. in how we identify ourselves, our partners, and the orientations and genders of others.

In this era of exploration, many people are becoming more comfortable exploring and being themselves, and along with this exploration, we sometimes have to come up with new terms for what we’ve learned.

For ease of discussion:

“Bi” (meaning “two”) or “bisexuality” means that a person is attracted to two or more genders. That may be their own and the opposite, their own and non-binary, their own/opposite/non-binary, etc.

“Pan” or “Pansexuality” refers to having an attraction to all genders/types of people, and is meant to be more inclusive.

An area I find some defining the difference in is attraction to those who are transgender. Some believe that bisexuals inherently define two genders by calling it “bi”-sexuality, stating they are solely attracted to the two genders by stating they are bi, but this is not how I and many bisexuals differentiate.While pansexual is sometimes meant to be directly inclusive of transgendered people or any genders outside of male and female, bisexuality can have this meaning as well.

One can be pansexual and thus bisexual, or bisexual and pansexual, or bisexual and not pansexual. These terms are not necessarily interchangeable, and there are small differences in depending on who you are speaking with, but there are overarching similarities, as well.

I personally identify as bisexual since I am attracted to more than two genders, but I don’t identify as pansexual as I’m typically not attracted to extremely masculine males and I have different factors that play into who I am attracted to. I feel like I can’t identify as pansexual due to my personal preferences, but some might say that solely based on my attraction to males, females, transgendered persons, etc. that I could be considered pansexual.

How do you identify? Do you distinguish between bi- and pansexuality? Why so or not? Let me know your thoughts in a reply!