Pansexual and Panromantic Awareness and Visibility Day is celebrated annually on May 24th in order to increase visibility and combat prejudice related to pan- identities. If you need a refresher on the difference between sexual and romantic orientations and attraction, you can check out the newsletter I wrote about ace identities here.
In short, someone can be both pansexual and panromantic, or just pansexual or panromantic combined with any other sexual or romantic orientation. People are complex, and that's cool! For grammatical ease, I'm going to refer to the identity purely as pansexual for the rest of this newsletter, but rest assured I mean all variations on the identity, and they are very much included in my musings.
The term pansexuality was coined in the 1990s to distinguish it from bisexuality, as people who identified with the label felt that the existing definition of bisexuality upheld the gender binary. Some people have gone so far as to say the term bisexuality is transphobic, as it assumes the existence of only two genders. I wholeheartedly disagree, and I have read interpretations that hit closer to home for me as a non-binary panromantic person.
According to these, bisexuality refers to the attraction to your own, as well as other genders, hence the use of the prefix bi-. While bisexual people are attracted to multiple genders, gender itself is still a factor. Pansexuality, wherein pan means all, is the attraction to people regardless of gender. In my personal attraction to people, gender doesn't play much of a role at all. I connect with people based on personality, common interests, and.. basically just vibes. Sure, I have some aesthetic preferences I gravitate towards, but even those are kind of all over the gender spectrum and not really defined by a specific identity.
In the end, I think it's important to remember that our experiences are varied and to not draw conclusions about someone's identity based on assumptions. If you're curious and they are willing to share, have a chat about it!
What about you? Are you bi or pan? What does that mean to you specifically?
Origins and Flag
I couldn't find much about the specific origins of this day. Wikipedia's list of LGBTQIA+ awareness days indicates it was held for the first time in 2015, but there's no indication as to why. If you're reading this and have any additional info, I'd love to know!
Finally, as an artist and color nerd, the pansexual flag is one of my favorites in the LGBTQIA+ umbrella. The design was first posted anonymously on Tumblr in the early 2010s by its creator Jasper V. The flag is made up of three equal stripes: pink, yellow, and cyan. According to some sources, the three colors symbolize attraction to varying gender identities and expression: pink for feminine identities and women, yellow for non-binary identities, and blue for masculine identities and men.