Unfiltered Story #92883

(A coworker has been asking me about my sexual orientation, as I’m quite camp. He identifies as pansexual, while I identify as bisexual. He asks me to clarify why I am bi. He interrupts me mid-sentence.)

Coworker: “Mate, that makes you pan.”

Me: “I don’t think so, nor do I really care.”

Coworker: “But you said you don’t care about gender.”

Me: “Right. It means nothing to me when it comes to sexuality, because you can’t know someone’s identity unless they tell you. If I find someone attractive, I find them attractive. Their gender has no bearing on that.”

Coworker: “But bisexuality is attraction to two genders.”

Me: “Well, that’s not how I understood it, but going with that, how would we know?”

Coworker: “Huh?”

Me: “How would we know their gender without asking them? And would that mean we immediately stop feeling attracted the second they say they don’t conform to the gender binary?”

Coworker: “Well, uh… It, it still means you’re pan.”

Me: “I don’t really care. I don’t feel the need to state that gender doesn’t affect my attraction to someone, so I’ll stick with bisexual.”

(This seemed to piss him off, and he stormed off, saying that someday I would accept what I really am. He was the first person I had ever met who identified as pan, and I didn’t really understand it much to begin with, other than this statement that you’re attracted to every gender. I see this as pointless for me, because I’ve always assumed that was a given when it came to bisexuality, and every other sexuality, for that matter. Sorry if I’ve offended anyone, though. I’m probably just ignorant.)