Do you know about this new sexual orientation?

<p>With more and more LGBTQ coming out of the closet, millennials have stumbled upon a new term: Pansexuality. "Who I’m with has nothing to do with sex," told Miley Cyrus recently to an entertainment media brand. "I’m super-open, pansexual, that’s just me," she said.<br></p><p>A new term, sure, but not a new concept, pansexuality refers to an attraction towards pan (in Greek), that is, all. Here’s all you need to know about this sexual orientation.</p>

<p>Pansexuality refers to attraction towards people regardless of their sex, gender or identity. Commonly referred to as ‘gender-blind’ or ‘gender fluid’, pansexuals say that gender does not influence their likings or sexual attraction.<br></p>

<p>For those who don’t know, bisexuality refers to attraction towards both the sexes (bi), male and female. So, it is often questioned whether pansexuality is anything more than bisexuality. Indeed, it is because pansexuality refers to attraction to not only both the genders but also to transsexuals, transvestites, hermaphrodites, intersexuals or even people with sex-chromosome anomaly.<br></p>

<p>Pansexuality doesn’t cover paraphilia, also known as sexual perversion or sexual fetishism. Paraphilia refers to sexual arousal from atypical objects and beings, such as attraction to animals (bestiality), attraction to prepubescent children (paedophilia) or to dead bodies (necrophilia).<br></p>

<p>Many people think that an attraction to all is often greedy or promiscuous in nature. One needs to understand the difference between polysexuality and polyamory. Polysexual means an attraction towards more than one gender but does not mean being sexually involved with all of them at the same time (polyamory). Just like a monosexual can be polyamorous, a polysexual can be monogamous.<br></p>

<p>Just like the founding of any relationship, pansexuality is also based on a strong emotional bond. In fact, pansexuals can be very choosy about the people they date as they look for developing very soulful and meaningful relationships.<br></p>

<p>The term ‘pansexuality’ was hardly used before six years but the concept may be much older. Pansexuals have been around much longer. The term pansexual was reclaimed in the nineties by people who identified themselves as gender fluid.<br></p>

<p>Three years ago, people did not identify themselves as pansexuals because they did not know the term only. Thanks to Facebook and the likes, the rise of awareness about such orientations among people is tremendous. But does this diminish the meaning of the word? In no way. Sexuality is about owning oneself and it shouldn’t be seen in such a lowly manner. (Images Courtesy: Shutterstock)<br></p>