Today we continue our Pride Month Information Series. Last week we started by exploring the basics and today we’ll delve a little deeper.
Bisexual/bi: someone who is sexually and/or romantically attracted to more than one gender. We’ll cover gender in the next NVN Weekly but just keep in mind that bisexuality doesn’t assume that there are only two genders.
Pansexual/pan: someone who is attracted to another person, either sexually/romantically/or emotionally, regardless of their gender. Sometimes the term ‘gender-blind’ is used, but you’ll often here a pan person say ‘I’m attracted to the person not what’s between their legs’.
Demisexual: a person who experiences sexual or romantic attraction to another person, but only after they have formed a close, emotional connection with them.
Asexual/ace: Asexuals generally feel little to no sexual attraction towards other people, but they may feel romantic or emotional attraction. This is not the same as abstinence or celibacy though as both of these are a conscious decision to not have sex despite feeling sexual attraction.
Aromantic/aro: someone who doesn’t feel romantic attraction to another person (not to be confused with emotional attraction). Aromantics may also identify as asexual but they don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Both aro and ace orientations are complex and I highly recommend doing further reading if you’re interested as a small snippet such as this simply cannot convey the complexities.
Next week we’ll be exploring the concept of gender so be sure to have a read.
