a timeline of pansexual history

i hope you find this interesting or informative or helpful in some way!

i love pansexual people 💗💛💙🥺😭🥰

july is disability pride month, so let’s highlight some disabled pan characters! 🌈💗💛💙

we got some physical disabilities, chronic illnesses, learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, and more in characters from books, comics, games, tv, webcomics, and webseries.

for all the specifics of the rep these characters offer (don’t want this post to be even longer) check out the details on my pan rep list.

unlike the books which have the title and author in the cover, the other characters might not be recognizable so: eliza han (archie comics), deadpool (marvel comics), fuse (apex legends), andre (inside job), finnegan (monster high), chris (friki romance), noah (sunflowers and lavender), abby (no end), maverick (no end), leo (cirque royale), and sulvain (novae).

(this post on ig)

july 14th is international nonbinary people's day (created in 2012 by katje van loon) so shoutout to pan nonbinary folks! y'all are so lovely and deserving of respect and recognition and support! 💛🤍💜🖤 💗💛💙

(also!!!! nonbinary pride week starts the monday preceding nonbinary people's day, so this year it's july 10th-16th!!!)

did y'all know that statistics show that it's very common for people to be both pansexual/panromantic and nonbinary? i think that's neat.

here's to all the nonbinary pans! y'all are definitely not alone in your experiences and identification! i hope y'all have a lovely day and rest of the week!!! 💕💕💕

what a shocking yet delightful turn of events 🥳🥳

exactly that. insert that spiderman meme here. queer folks who hate pansexuality more often than not are also some other kind of queerphobic, usually transphobes/terfs, and think tumblr ruined queerness (but that doesn’t stop them from using it lol) or that mogai queers make the community look bad or that self-identification and validity are harmful or think science/academia is the final say on queerness or or or or. just a lot of general shitty views on queerness that go beyond their panphobia and it’s very telling. like, their panphobia is a one off. it’s a product of a foundational hatred of queer people, a backwards, oppressive view of queerness, and a desperate desire to be one of the good queers. they’re just a sad, hateful group of people tbh. (and no worries, i didn’t find the message negative. it’s a good point to be made!)

pansexual is good 💗💛💙 bisexual is good 💗💜💙

just respect how people self-identify and resist the urge to assign bad faith assumptions onto why they identify the way they do. we as a community need to be kinder and more understanding with one another. we all have our reasons for the language we use for ourselves and our queerness, and more often than not, there isn’t some bad, harmful reasoning behind our labels.

and of course, some folks identify as both bi and pan. this post is just about how people just assume every bi and pan person who does not use both labels has made a choice between the two labels, or in other words, considered both labels and rejected one for the other. and this is simply not the case.

i can’t speak for anyone but myself, and personally i don’t like when my self-identification is painted in a negative light in comparison to another label; that my pansexuality is a rejection of bisexuality. it isn’t. i have nothing but love and respect for bisexuality, bisexual history, and bisexual people. i’m just simply not bisexual. it isn’t any deeper than that.

and if you’re wondering why it matters if people think this, it’s because language matters. queer people’s experiences with their identity and the language they use for it should be acknowledged and respected, rather than dismissed in favor of creating a uniform narrative, especially one that is negative, that we all neatly fit into.

a lovely little quote about the connection, safety, positivity, and affirmation that can come from labels.

people tend to talk about the negatives of queer labels, how they’re restrictive and expected, how they long for a day when they’re obsolete, how they can create pressure to figure yourself out sooner and sooner, etc. hell, even people who aren’t queer, but are allies, talk about how they don’t like the labels and hope one day we won’t need them.

personal feelings on labels vary and are never wrong, but i think it’s important to also acknowledge the joy, love, positivity, and community that can come from labels, how they can be a lifeline to so many people, how they allow people to find each other and come together. i love labels and the ever-evolving language we use for queerness. i personally don’t ever wish for a time when we are without labels, just without the gatekeeping and prescriptive beliefs around them.

how do y’all feel about labels?

“my son is pansexual” — a love letter to david rose

latest on medium: talking about my love for, the importance of, and the impact of pansexual icon david rose, schitt’s creek, and dan levy.

happy pride lovelies 💗💛💙🌈

pansexual characters that have stayed with me, are favorites, or i think about often 💗💛💙🌈

i don’t know if any other character will be able to come close to the impact of my beloved david rose (schitt’s creek). it was the first time i heard the word pansexual used on screen and the wine analogy is iconic at this point. harry (the thing about harry) is also a big one because name another on-screen pan lead of a new adult m/m romcom. i’ll wait.

while pansexual isn’t used on page in the “ode to pansexuality” all of the above (juno dawson), it represents a conceptualization of pansexuality as an anti-identity/label or an attitude of not wanting or needing the strict, neat boxes that society forces on and expects of us. it speaks to the time when before learning of pansexuality, i had that mindset, and kinda still do. (and that cover?!)

miss meteor (tehlor kay mejia and anna-marie mclemore) has probably the only instance of love being expressed for the word pansexual. so often pan rep is a shoulder shrug situation, where the character doesn’t feel strongly about the word. but this mc says she loved pansexual the moment she heard it. and that’s really important to me, as is her journey of accepting her pansexuality and coming out.

loveless (alice oseman) has a side pansexual discovery storyline, which i always love. the mc’s sexuality arc in our way (t.l. swan) is the only thing i like about the book. a man who was only attracted to men for 30+ years finds himself attracted to women, and through a journey of analyzing his attraction/feelings and dealing with the assumptions/pressures of other people, he realizes and accepts his pansexuality.

honorable mentions: while amy raudenfeld (faking it) and the mc of black iris (elliot wake) aren’t canon pan, they’re mspec characters i read as pan and relate to the portrayal of their sexualities. amy is the first tv character i saw express that sort of label reluctancy and not viewing attraction based in gender. black iris (elliot wake) is one of the first queer books i actively sought out and the mc’s sexuality has that “fuck gender, fuck labels” vibe.

feel free to share what pan or queer characters have spoken to you or stayed with you!

pansexual affirmations 💗💛💙

repeat after me, pansexuals:

💗 i am queer enough 💛 i am not harming anyone by being pansexual 💙 i don’t owe anyone an explanation of pansexuality 💗 i deserve respect and acceptance 💛 i am a valued part of the queer community 💙 i am allowed to take pride in my pansexuality

i love y'all, happy pride 🌈💕

pansexuals are otterly amazing 🦦💚

happy pride y'all!!!!!! 💗💛💙

happy pride y'all 💗🧡💛💚💙💜

hi! so i have this post about the identity and why people might use the label (there's also some links in the post for other posts/resources), and this post of historical sources for the identity.

latest ig post that’s a start of a series: debunking panphobic arguments. the first post is about the claim that pan people are more accepted or seen as more queer than bi people!

i’m a longwinded individual so i’m struggling to tldr this.

i think key takeaways are that claims of not being “queer enough” or being “too straight” for queer spaces have never just been about bi people. the narrative that there was a time when bi history was without pan people or pan people didn’t historically experience the same stigma/exclusion as bi people is simply erasure of pan history.

and saying pan people are seen as more queer or are more accepted within queer spaces than bi people erases pan people’s lived experiences of the same high rates of exclusion, invalidation, violence, and abuse as bi people. pan people are not thought of or treated better than bi people in any material way.

lastly, stop thinking shitting on pan people or pitting pan people and bi people against each other is somehow combatting biphobia.