August 19, 2020: So it’s been 159 days since I came out as #pansexual. With #covid though, I wasn’t really able to #celebrate it, as I came out just days before lockdown back on March 12, 2020.
#Pansexuality is defined as the #sexual, #romantic or #emotional #attraction towards people regardless of their #sex or #gender #identity. Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determining factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others.
And that’s still me... to a degree. Why do I say that?
Well, I say that because in the last few months I’ve also realized fully that demisexuality is also engrained deeply within me. Specifically, demisexuality is a sexual #orientation where people only experience sexual #attraction to folks that they have close emotional connections with. In other words, demisexual people only experience sexual attraction after an emotional bond has formed.
As such, I’m formally declaring here today that I’m #Demipansexual, a sexual orientation on the #Asexual Spectrum that is the combination of Pansexual and Demisexual, mainly defined as being sexually attracted to everybody regardless of gender, but needing to feel a deep emotional connection with the person before feeling sexual attraction towards said person.
At some point in the near future I’ll discuss my gender expression but my thinking on this is still in an exploratory mode of sorts. I have a lot to say about it, too much for this post.
This is a photo of myself with the demipansexual flag layered on top of me. This #photo is a part of my #subverted #selfie project of 2020, photo 232/366.
This photo was originally posted on Instagram.
#selflove #selfacceptance #growth #love #dailyinspiration #empowerment #366selfies #livingmybestlife #queer #demipansexualpride #artistsoninstagram #selfportrait
A few good videos about coming out…
A few good videos that discuss the nuances of being demisexual…
Some good articles about demisexuality…
Brito, Janet & Sian Ferguson. What Does It Mean to Be Demisexual?. Healthline, 17 Sep 2019.
Klein, Jessica. Why demisexuality is as real as any sexual orientation. BBC, 5 Nov 2021.
MacMillan, Hayley, et al. Here’s What It Means to Be Demisexual: Everything you need to know about the sexual orientation right this way. Cosmopolitan, 9 Aug 2021.