Date/Time
Date(s) - May 24, 2023
All Day
May 24 marks Pansexual and Panromantic awareness and visibility day. These are two terms that not everyone might be conscious of so an awareness and visibility day such as this is really important. So what do these two terms mean?
Pansexual people – people who are attracted to others regardless of their gender identity or biological sex.
Panromantic people – people who are romantically (not necessarily sexually) attracted to others regardless of their gender identity or biological sex.
So is pansexual the same as bisexual? Not exactly – bisexual (bi) and pansexual (pan) are similar but there is a difference. Bisexual means to be attracted to your own gender and other genders (some people think it means to be attracted to both men and women, but this isn’t always the case and can include non-binary people). Pansexual means to be attracted to all genders so someone’s gender doesn’t factor into attraction when someone is pan.
Why does any of this matter? Well, imagine if there’s a part of who you are and it doesn’t have a name, or people assume that this means something else or that you mean something different. This can lead to feeling really ostracized or judged by communities and society as a whole. It could mean that there’s a part of yourself that has no definition and that society has no understanding about this important aspect of yourself.
It’s important to remember that being a pansexual or a pan romantic person doesn’t define all of a person. It’s just one aspect of them. But it’s an important part to understand and respect. Difference and diversity is what makes the world a fascinating place to be a part of.
If you identify as panromantic or pansexual – enjoy the 24th of May. If you know someone who does, let them know you’re thinking of them. Validation and acceptance makes the human experience all that more wonderous. If you neither identify or know someone – but you’ve learned something new about the wonderful variety that human beings come in, share on social media, have a conversation, do some reading.