What Does It Mean To Be Pan

     There are very few days that I've ever marked. I don't care about birthdays, I don't remember the exact day I started keto. The only day I can remember marking was the day I stopped drinking, January 7th 2017. I have no idea why that stuck in my head, but it has. Another date I failed to mark was the day I came out as pansexual. I know, that I could go back and find the post and look at the date, but it really doesn't matter, just like the date I stopped drinking, and that is simply because the past is just that, the past. It's the here and now that is most important. I'm brining all of this up, today is pansexual visibility day. I don't announce my sexuality except for when I came out, and of course today. The only reason I'm doing it today was some of the posts that I saw and the comments that were on them today.

     Before I get into all that, let's have a little fun at the pans expense. As you all know that the pride flag consists of the rainbow. The original flag consisted of 8 colors, those being; pink, red, orange, yellow, green turquoise, indigo, and violet. What you may not know is that each one of those colors represents something. In the order of colors above, they are; sex, life, healing, sunlight, nature, magic/art, serenity and spirit. That flag was created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker. We can all agree that the rainbow is pretty cool, whether you support the lgbtqiap+ community or not. Yeah I went for the full alphabet today. The bi flag makes a lot of sense, because it is pink, blue on either side of violet, which is those two colors coming together. The transgender flag is a stripe of white with two stripes of pink and blue on either side, once again makes a ton of sense. What about the pan flag then. Basically we have the worst flag ever. Are you ready for it?

     There you have it. Magenta, yellow and cyan. It looks like a hideous version of Neapolitan ice cream. I will run down the colors and what each one means, but that only leads to the confusion about pansexuals, and the comments I saw regarding the, and the need I have to clear things up. Magenta symbolizes women and those of the female spectrum, yellow symbolizes non binary, and cyan symbolizes males and male spectrum. Ok what does female and male spectrum mean? The spectrum is those that identify themselves as that gender; transgender women and men. Let's get to non binary. That is those that don't identify within the norms of societal genders; asexual, gender fluid, bigender, androgynous. Are you thoroughly confused now? Yeah, I figured you were, and I'm sure there are some questions. That's what I'm here for, I'm going to try to explain what all the means, to me. I can't speak for every pan person, but I think I speak for most.

     A few of the comments on the posts I saw were asking the difference between bi and pan. In a general perspective you could see why someone would ask that. They only see men and women. It's understandable. That didn't bother me, what did bother me was the people commenting that the difference was as simple as, bi people like only men and women, and pan people want to sleep with everyone. I am paraphrasing there, but that is the sentiment of those comments. I can tell you, that I don't want to sleep with everyone. There are only a few people that I would consider sleeping with, but not all at one time. Despite what that comment would imply. I am very monogamous. So what is the difference? The short and simple answer is that a pan person looks for personality of sexuality. Bisexuals have a preference for men or women, and will sometimes lean towards one more than the other. Pansexuals don't consider gender and look more for other traits in someone. That can range from personality, physical appearance, and intelligence. If all of that is in the right package, it doesn't matter what the gender is.

     I may be over simplifying the bisexual experience with that very limited definition, and that is because I'm not bisexual and can't truly define their experience, so I implore you to talk to a bi person if you truly want to know their definition of who they are. Like I said early on, I can only speak truly for myself. Now, I do have a gender leaning despite identifying as pan. The reason could be that I've only experienced dating women, but where I differ and why I identify as pan, is because I don't rule out the possibility that a different gender could attract me. When the right person comes along, I will greet them with an open heart. I must reiterate, that I do not want to sleep with anyone and everyone. I do have standards and ideals of who I want to be with, so when you see a pan shirt that says "All the butts", that may be funny, but it's nonsense and garbage.

     If you have gotten this far in reading this, then I thank you. The pansexual community is vastly underrepresented. You probably didn't even know there was a pan flag, even if you are in the lgbtqiap+ community. Even the Human Rights Campaign only recognizes us on this day. I can't give them too much flack though, because they barely acknowledge the bi community either. So we will all rest easy under the umbrella of the pride flag, mostly because our flag sucks. I do hope this brings some understanding to you, and a little knowledge to help you navigate this very alphabetic world the I am a part of. Peace in and goodnight.