Alright, first off, for all those people who are all "It's fine, just don't shove your non-heterosexuality in my face"... How about you stop shoving heterosexuality and frat-boy mentality in our faces?
Alright, pansexuality is a valid sexual orientation, it IS different than bisexuality. Bisexuality means one is romantically, and sexually attracted to anyone belonging to the long-established (although incorrect really) gender binary. Pansexuality refers to someone who can be attracted to anyone regardless of what's between their legs (sex) or between their ears (gender) and thus does NOT subscribe to the existence of just the gender/sex binary.
Is this really that hard to wrap your head around? It's not some "hipster" movement (At least I don't think it is... I'm a little foggy on what a hipster even is...) It's not someone trying to be cool, or special, or unique, it's a valid sexuality, that's even accepted by medial professionals. So get off your bash-anything-that-dare-makes-me-think-about-something-new-high-horse and THINK some, humans are supposedly evolutionary tailored to THINK, don't be afraid of it kiddies.
Yes, it can be an overwhelming topic for those who never had to think about sex, gender, or alternative sexualities (Looking at the small-minded subset of heterosexual cispeople) But it's really not even up for debate, all these terms have been accepted as real, and are in the professional vernacular.
Heck, there's even a relatively well-supported theory floating about that deals with the idea we are all pansexual, that we're on a sexual-orientation continuum, and that regardless of where you sit on it, you like every gender presentation, and sex. But those preferences might not be strong enough to pursue them.
One could just as easily (well even easier actually) argue that heterosexuals, and bisexual people don't exist, in that they're all pansexual anyway... Which brings us to the often-necessary evil...
Labels, yes, they often suck, but they are totally necessary at times to ease in communication of ideas and thoughts (You know, like language was invented for) Let's take the "heterosexual" cisgendered male (which is probably the most prominent demographic on here) You're somewhere on this sexual orientation matrix/continuum, where you are attracted to members of the female sex/gender the strongest, by this theory, you are actually attracted to every other part of the wonderful wide range of human sex/gender, but that attraction may be so small, it never comes to the surface in a profound way. But you may find some guys attractive, you might even have a man-crush on someone, I dunno Jason Statham *fans self* mmm Clive Owen... *shakes head* So? What would you call yourself then? Would you like a whole song and dance about who you'd like to get with? Or would you rather just say heterosexual/straight? I would assume you'd want the label, well, then why can't you let the pansexuals have their label too? Anyway, that's just a theory at this point, but it's becoming closer and closer to an accepted fact, which makes me snicker inside at all the bigots out there, you're all as queer as a three-dollar bill.
So, basically, all of you that are arguing against the idea of pansexuality (including the asexual people, your place on the continuum is just in a place where no combination of sex/gender is appealing enough to you that you'd peruse a relationship, which is totally a valid sexuality) Are effectively arguing against your own sexuality, which is just sad, it brings me to tears to see self-hating queer people *sniff*
Original topic: Yes, how gay men are often portrayed in the media is asinine, alongside representations of anyone not identifying as straight and cisexual. Which is probably leading to a lot of misinformation, and hatred/bigotry really, but since the sheep continue to gobble up what's put in front of them with little thought, it probably will never change anytime soon...
I'm a transwoman, and just look at how badly we're portrayed in the media? It's like we're some kind of big joke... We're some dirty little punchline in a lot of the media, it's vile and disgusting that anyone could treat another human being like that, particularly one who has it as hard as transpeople...
Anyway, that's my 3 cents (All that typing took a whole 'nother cent) For what it's worth, I've been an LGBTAQI peer support founder/facilitator, as well as a transsexual support group facilitator/co-founder for several years, I do this professionally.
I'm also a pansexual transsexual (That's fun to say, isn't it?) as well as being human and capable of coherent thought processes (Most of the time...) So my own insight, exploration, and experiences are in there too.
And to all those lovely queer people out there who are having a hard time grasping why other people have a hard time grasping different queer concepts, remember... there's empirical proof that we (as queer people, especially the transgendered/transsexuals) Have, on average, a higher IQ (not as important) but a higher understanding of society, and well as an often-vastly superior EQ/EI, and probably have a much easier time wrapping our heads around it. It's just the way our brains are wired *shrug*
