I'm awful with words- they don't come to me easily, when trying to explain something, especially since english isn't my first language, so please bear with me. okay, so I've read this anti bi/pan lesbian thing a few days ago, and it's been on my mind ever since. If you have any more questions, I would be happy to answer them.
Anyway, I hope that I have been able to explain my decision well enough. Obviously, most people could tell you that a bisexual or pansexual is still bi or pan whether their attraction to men and women is split 50/50, 25/75, or even 10/90. I did see one "bi/pan lesbian" claim that their attraction to women was simply greater than their attraction to men, and so they identified as a bi/pan lesbian. To take the label that we have championed around and apply it to something else is disrespectful and hurtful.Īlthough these are the main arguments in support of the bi/pan lesbian label that I have found, there are others that I won't give as much attention as well. It took a tremendous amount of effort on the part of lesbians in order to gain the acceptance and respect that we have achieved thus far. The attraction that some of these women feel towards other women is something that further challenges the traditional ideas that these people and societies hold. The idea that there are women who are not attracted to men is still a concept that many people and many societies do not accept at all. So, when lesbianism is misrepresented, it undoes all of the hard work that lesbians have done in order to gain visibility and understanding in society. “Okay but why is it hurtful though? Why can’t you just let people identify however they want?” Great question. A woman who is "h*m*sexual" and romantically attracted to women and nonbinary women can identify as a lesbian. A woman who is "h*m*romantic" and sexually attracted to women and nonbinary women can identify as a lesbian. It already exists within the established definition of lesbianism. However, with lesbianism there is no need to use the label bi or pan in order to distinguish this attraction. "But what if the 'h*m*romantic bi/pansexual' and 'bi/panromantic h*m*sexual' women aren't attracted to men? What if they're attracted to women and nonbinary people only?" Well, we've established that women who are attracted to other women and nonbinary women can be lesbians. Using the split attraction model to separate your romantic and sexual attraction does not allow you to ignore either attraction to men in order to claim lesbianism. This is due to the fact that lesbians can not be attracted to men either romantically or sexually. Besides my own issues with the split attraction model, even in these cases the labels bi/pan lesbian are incorrect. Second of all, they may be a "h*m*romantic bi/pansexual" woman or a "bi/panromantic h*m*sexual" woman and believe they can rightfully identify as a bi/pan lesbian. Again, lesbians can be attracted to nonbinary women and lesbians can be nonbinary women. First of all, they may be under the impression that lesbianism on its own is not inclusive of nonbinary attraction. When a person says that they are a bisexual lesbian or a pansexual lesbian, there are several things they could be referring to, all of which misrepresent lesbianism in a different but equally problematic way. Lesbians can also be nonbinary as long as they align with womanhood in some way. However, lesbians can be attracted to nonbinary individuals who align in some way with womanhood as lesbianism has always been inclusive of these nonbinary and gender non-conforming identities. A lesbian can not, under any circumstances, be attracted to men (sexually or romantically). A lesbian is a woman (either a cis woman, a trans woman, or a nonbinary woman) who is exclusively attracted to other women (this includes cis women, trans women, and nonbinary women). I would also like to take this time to explain how hurtful that the labels bisexual lesbian and pansexual lesbian can be, especially to lesbians like myself. Instead, I will be using the gorgeous pansexual flag designed by on Twitter. So in light of the recent news that the creator of the pansexual flag supports bi/pan lesbians, I have decided to discontinue the use of the old pansexual flag in this thread.