A pansexual person could be attracted to a man, woman, a transgendered person, or a non-gendered person.
Miley Cyrus' relationship with Liam Hemsworth isn't the only aspect of her love life she's been talking about recently—she's also been opening up about identifying as "pansexual."
In 2016, Cyrus told Variety that she had a hard time understanding her own gender and sexuality. “I always hated the word ‘bisexual’ because that’s even putting me in a box,” she explained in the interview. “I
don’t ever think about someone being a boy or someone being a girl. ...
My eyes started opening in the fifth or sixth grade. My first
relationship in my life was with a chick.”
Then in a recent interview with Billboard, Cyrus opened up a bit more about her status as a pansexual: "Who I’m with has nothing to do with sex," she said. "I’m super-open, pansexual, that’s just me."
So what is pansexuality and how does it differ from other LGBTQ identities? We turned to Holly Richmond, Ph.D., a certified sex therapist and marriage and family counselor, to learn more.
Pansexual isn’t the same as bisexual. “Pan comes for the Greek word all,” Richmond says. “Pansexual is not bi-sexual, it’s all sexual.”
That means a pansexual person could be attracted to a man, woman, a
transgendered person, or a non-gendered person (a person who chooses not
to identify themselves by gender), Richmond says.
Pansexuality doesn’t translate to promiscuity. Pansexuals may be attracted to all people, but that doesn't mean that they're going to have sex with anyone, Richmond says. “Pansexuals can be very choosy,” she says.
The term "pansexuality" only emerged recently.
Richmond says she first started learning about pansexuality five or six
years ago at a conference for the American Association of Sexuality
Educators, Counselors, and Therapists. Although pansexual people have
definitely been around longer than that, the general public is just
starting to learn what that sexual identity means.
Less than 1 percent of the population identifies as pansexual.
Because pansexuality is a fairly new concept to many people, it’s hard
to pinpoint exactly how many identify with the label, Richmond explains;
she puts her best estimate at less than 1 percent. But as more people
become aware of pansexuality, there may be more people who come to
identify that way, she says.
Pansexuality isn’t just about sex.
When pansexuals are making a romantic connection, it’s very much about
connecting with the person—not the gender, Richmond says. “It’s about developing meaningful relationships."
