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Symbol: a combination of ⚦ and the letter 'P' for pan-.
Etymology
From pan- + -sexual. First attested in 1926 (with pansexualism attested since 1917), as a descriptor of the psychological theory that all human activity is based on sexuality. Used to describe a sexual orientation since at least the 1970s.
1970–1972 (printed in compiled form in 1973), Ramparts, page 25:
Karen and Carlos are definitely pansexual people who have paired off to have this child, and this seems real and good to them now. When I had been with Karen, she had floated through several gay relationships, all my friends had been what I would call pansexual, avoiding the older term bisexual, which is meaningless when you can count more than two sexes.
1979, Karla Jay, Allen Young, The Gay Report: Lesbians and Gay Men Speak Out:
Obviously many women who answered the survey considered themselves bisexual in the past no longer do. Perceiving oneself as bisexual was often a stage of transition between heterosexuality and homosexuality. But others did consider and still consider themselves bisexual. Here are some stories of bisexual or pansexual women and some comments about [...]
1995, Owen McNally, “The Vigor, Venom and Wit of Gore Vidal”, in Hartford Courant, page E1:
As a writer/sexologist, he argues that people are neither homosexual nor heterosexual but pansexual.
1999, Steven Drukman, “Cumming Attraction”, in Out, page 82:
CUMMING: Bisexual, I suppose... No, pansexual. Some bloke in a newspaper called me a "frolicky pansexual sex symbol for the new millennium." I thought that was fabulous.
2004, John Leland, Hip: The History, →ISBN, page 50:
To the end he [Walt Whitman] denied that he was homosexual; his writings are pansexual, finding carnal ripeness in the soul, in nature, as well as in men and women.
1998, Dossie Easton, Catherine A. Liszt, The Ethical Slut, →ISBN, page 262:
We like to attend pansexual group sex parties, which means that attendees may identify as gay or lesbian or bisexual or hetero or transgendered, but are generally comfortable and happy to play side-by-side with people whose desires may be entirely different than their own.
Someone who is attracted to all types of people regardless of gender.
Usage notes
Some people prefer this term to bisexual because of its acknowledgement of more than two genders. Some other people dislike this term, either because they feel there are only two genders or they feel bisexual includes more than two genders, or they dislike the polysemy of pansexual. Similar arguments are made about the less common term omnisexual.
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