What is the difference between bisexual and pansexual?

Bisexuals are attracted to females and males; pansexuals expand that attraction to trans individuals, intersex individuals, genderqueer, etc. At least, that's how I understand it. -edit- I think the idea is to shift the focus from a binary gender system to a more inclusive one.

 

I'm just giving you a heads up because I'm not sure if you're aware but you're asking a pretty difficult question. A lot of people argue over the definition all the time. I'm not sure if you're really going to get a consensus here.

Personally, I just put that I'm pansexual/bisexual and call it a day. I have the ability to be with anyone regardless of their sex or gender identity. It doesn't matter to me and I have no preference.

Also, welcome to EC!

Edit: If you're asking to see which term you should identify with, I think you should identify with whichever term you're comfortable with. You don't have to use anyone else's definition to define you. There are plenty of bisexuals that are attracted to trans* people

 

this question has been asked a million times on EC. if you do a quick search of threads (preferably not posts as the results would be endless) for "pansexual" you will find a number of threads asking what the difference is between bisexuality and pansexuality.

in short: people will often disagree about the difference between bi* and pan*, but the consensus among bisexuals is that bisexuality is the capacity to be sexually attracted to one's own gender and to other genders. bisexuality is generally not considered to be attraction exclusively to male and female genders, despite what many people who do not even identify as bisexual will tell you.

pansexuality is the capacity to be sexually attracted to all genders and/or regardless of gender. pansexuals often feel strongly about countering the general assumption made by society that gender/sex is binary; that is, that there are more than two genders/sexes. while bisexuals may feel just as strongly about the gender/sex binary as pansexuals, it seems to me that pansexual s on average are much more vocal about it.

additionally, bisexuality is also considered to be an umbrella term which includes bisexuality (the sexuality as opposed to the umbrella term), pansexuality and polysexuality.

see this image: http://bistander.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/the_bisexual_umbrella_by_drynwhyl-d4gq9ji.jpg