bisexual and pansexual identities exploring and challenging invisibility and invalidation

Feinstein, who is a gay man, says that it’s common for young people to search online for what it means if they are attracted to people of more than one gender. “A lot of people, especially young people, know they’re attracted to people of more than one gender-or all genders or regardless of gender identity-but initially they don't have language for what they’re experiencing.”ĭr. “The pansexual community is diverse and people of all backgrounds can and do identify as pansexual,” Brian Feinstein, Ph.D., licensed psychologist and associate professor of psychology at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, tells SELF.

Those in the survey who were pansexual were also predominantly young and more likely to be non-binary as well. And in a study of 2,220 non-heterosexual Australians published in 2017 in the Journal of Sex Research, 6.6% of participants identified as pansexual, compared with 7.6% who identified as queer, 18.6% who identified as bisexual, and 65.7% who identified as gay or lesbian. Comparatively, 34% of those teens identified as bisexual. A 2017 Human Rights Campaign survey in partnership with the University of Connecticut found that, out of over 12,000 LGBTQ+ 13-to-17 year-olds, 14% used the label pansexual to describe themselves. adults surveyed, 2% of 18-to-34-year-olds identified as pansexual. For instance, a 2017 Harris Poll commissioned by LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD found that, of the 2,037 U.S. Depending on the piece of research you look at-and the group of participants at the center of the data-estimates of how many people are pansexual can really vary.

Bisexual and pansexual identities exploring and challenging invisibility and invalidation