#panphobia

"Transphobia already covers that, we don't need Transmisogyny as a separate term"

"Bi already covere that we don't need Pan as a seperate term"

"Trans already covers that we don't need Nonbinary as a separate term"

"Gay already covers that we don't need Lesbian as a seperate term"

If there is a character who is romanceable in a game and is pan or bi, yet they didn't turn to the screen and say "I am bi/pan," then immediately the investigation for their "true" sexuality will now commence.

Because, for some reason, pan and bi people are the only ones who have to jump through hoops to verify to you that, yes, they are pan/bi, and not just gay or straight.

Take Astarion from BG3, for example. To this day, you can easily find people actively argue that, no, he isn't pan, he's gay! It's so obvious! You know, because he's flamboyant and not traditionally hyper masculine and he didn't turn to the audience and say "and also girls and enbies, winks" every single time he mentioned attraction to men.

Or Emmrich from Dragon Age. His pansexuality is disregarded plenty and exchanged for being gay, even though HE AND HIS WRITERS/DEVS ALL BUT DID TURN TO THE SCREEN AND SAY "I'm/he's pan."

Karlach (also from BG3) has her pansexuality stripped from her almost constantly, even though she actively expresses interest in male and female NPCs without the players input, simply because she's strong, crass, and not traditionally hyper feminine.

All of the romances in Warframe are pan, yet I almost ALWAYS see every female character treated as a lesbian and every male character treated as gay.

It's as if in the case of pan or bisexuality, so many demand a constant performance and verification of their sexuality. Yet, even if this verification is given, it will be discarded anyway. It doesn't matter how much a character or an official source cements them as being multisexual, because to bi/panphobes, it always ends up being the case that they believe all multisexual people are either just a straight or gay person who hasn't fully crossed the threshold yet, or that being bi/pan isn't queer enough, and thus they can revoke it in the name of "making it gayer."

It's incredibly frustrating to watch how many queer people - knowingly or unknowingly - simply perpetuate stereotypes and, funnily enough, the heteronormative status quo. If a character dresses, speaks, or in any way presents themselves in a way that doesn't align with heteronormative gender roles, then they will be boxed according to the stereotypes surrounding that behavior... Even though that is exactly the sort of thing queer people have fought against for decades.

In closing: pansexuality is valid, bisexuality is valid, you are not owed constant verification or specific performance from someone (including fictional characters, of all things) in order for their sexuality to be true, multisexual people do not have to mark off a checklist for their sexuality to be real.

Pansexuality and bisexuality are valid

A non-binary person who is taking testosterone or is otherwise perceived as a "female transitioning to be more masculine" is going to be treated near identically to a binary trans man by cis society. Even if the nonbinary person in question doesn't identify as a trans man or as transmasc.

A pansexual person and a bi person are going to be treated near identically by cishet people who don't know/don't care about the difference.

And it's not necessarily because it's a mistake or misdirected hatred. It's because, regardless of what label you use, if you are seen as deviant from the norm you will be targeted in order to maintain that norm and eradicate deviant behavior.

To people within the community who understand the nuances, they can hate in a much more specific way. They can point to specificly nonbinary people or specifically pansexual people to hate because their hatred is born not from hatred of deviant behavior but because they view these people as threats to their own minority status. (Alternatively, it can also be faux progressive non-queer people who can't publicly hate the more well known and we'll accepted queer people so they choose a fringe subgroup or a lesser known identity to hate that no one will care about and some queer people will even support, further justifying their hatred towards deviance)

But, generally speaking, the majority of cisalloperihet society just sees us all as deviant. They don't care about the labels or the nuances they just see people who are threatening the power structures of society and have determined us to be evil for it.

This is why no one is exempt from any form of oppression, especially when it comes to queer labels and the discrimination that go along with them.

Trans people are just as impacted by homophobia as gay people are, regardless of their actual sexuality. Same goes for transphobia affecting cis, gay, gender non-conforming people.

Because the end goal of anti-queer society is to eradicate deviation, it doesn't actually matter if you're a part of this specific group or not. Your perceived deviant behavior will get you targeted and either forcefully corrected or you will be disowned by society.

Like obviously there are aspects of oppression that certain "outside" groups aren't going to experience and this doesn't eliminate privileges that "non-group members" may have but at the end of the day a queerphobic 80 year old trumpie grandpa isn't going to care if you're a trans guy or a butch lesbian or a trans girl or a fem gay guy or bi or pan he's still going to call you slurs.

We're really not as different or separate as some people would like you to believe and the human experince is full of so much grey area. Labels don't matter nearly as much as some people think and what's more important is building community with people who are similarly "deviant" to you and combating your shared form of discrimination together.

If you hate people who are seen as deviant in a similar way to you but use a different label then you're doing the work of bigots for them.