coolcat101s: So I want to make sure I'm understanding the difference between bisexuality and pansexuality- from my understanding bisexuality involving a being attracted to two or more genders and someone who is bi may or may not have different preferences for the genders they are attracted to (liking tall guys, short girls and chubby nb people) and pansexuality is feeling attraction regardless of gender, the gender of your partner doesn't affect your preference or attraction (liking tall people in (1/2)
general)- would that be a solid way to explain the difference? Sorry if this has already been asked ^^“ I just want to make sure I define things properly since my family tends to ask me about lgbtqria+ things, since I’m the only one in the family who knows about these things…
Bisexual - 2 or more genders
Pansexual - all genders
A bisexual does not have to be attracted to all genders. They can be attracted to 2 genders, a few genders, a lot of genders, almost all genders ,or all genders. Pansexual is strictly all. No less than all. That’s the main difference (that bisexual has a range of attraction to genders; pansexual is strictly all).
Some Pansexuals do define their sexuality as having an attraction to all genders and gender doesn’t play a role in attraction, BUT I have seen other pansexuals say this is inaccurate as well. They say that Pansexuals are allowed to have preferences. So I would be careful not to use that definition. Especially not “gender blind” since that erases gender identity, and is generally not a good term to use.
So it pretty much narrows down to this:
What do you prefer to identity as?
If you like all genders and prefer pansexual? You’re pansexual. Prefer bisexual? You’re bisexual. Prefer both? You can ID as both!
Are you attracted to many genders but not all and prefer bisexual? You’re bisexual. Prefer polysexual? You’re polysexual. Prefer both? You can ID as both! I identify as both bi and polysexual, myself.
Hope this helped