LGBT refers to non-heterosexual, non cis-gender or non-dyadic people. The acronym that describes sexually diverse people has evolved and become longer. Later, the acronym added more letters to include other gender and sex characters, such as pansexuality and asexuality. Pansexuality and bisexuality are two orientations that are sometimes confused, but have a different characteristic from each other.
The word Pansexual comes from the Greek word “pan” meaning “all”, and the Latin “sexualis” meaning sexual. The word “all” refers to all genders and identities. Therefore, a pansexual is a person who is likely to be attracted to all genders, sentimentally, sexually or psychologically. By society’s presupposition, the similarity pansexuality bisexuality comes from the possibility of liking both genders. But pansexuals refuse the simple binary division of gender, and define themselves as non-binary. Gender plays no role in the sexual and love life of pansexuals. They deny the physical aspects pre-designated by society, and feel attraction only to the personality of the person, whether of both genders or of the third gender.
The “Bi” in bisexuality means “two”, referring to the two recognised sexual genders, male and female. Bisexuals are people who can have both emotional or sexual attraction to people of the same and opposite sex. The term bisexuality, etymologically, adheres to the concept of gender binary. The similarity pansexuality bisexuality can however be explained by the emotional interest in more than one gender. Although bisexuals can relate to both genders, a preference for one of the two is often noted. The level of affection for both genders for a bisexual person is not identical. Adolescents are most affected by the bisexual label, often in the process of deciding on their sexual orientation.
WHAT MAKES THEM DIFFERENT
The difference between pansexuality and bisexuality can be explained simply by an attraction of pansexuals to the third gender. This third gender includes transsexuals, androgynous people, intersex people… Bisexuality is the ability to be heterosexual and homosexual without remaining on one. While pansexuality is the fact of having a love or sexual attraction for a person, without considering their gender or sex.
In short, bisexual means having an attraction to more than one gender, and pansexual means having an attraction to all genders without worrying about it.