Miley Cyrus Pansexual: How Do You Define A Pansexual?

Earlier this year, Miley Cyrus declared in her Elle UK interview that she is "pansexual."

"I'm very open about it - I'm pansexual. But I'm not in a relationship. I'm 22, I'm going on dates, but I change my style every two weeks, let alone who I'm with," she said.

"I am literally open to every single thing that is consenting and doesn't involve an animal and everyone is of age," Cyrus said in her Paper Magazine interview. "Everything that's legal, I'm down with. Yo, I'm down with any adult - anyone over the age of 18 who is down to love me. I don't relate to being boy or girl, and I don't have to have my partner relate to boy or girl." 

So how does that differ to being bisexual, homosexual, heterosexual and polysexual?

According to The Independent, pansexual is a sexual identity for people who get attracted and fall in love with "all" genders, may that be a straight male, straight female, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or genderqueer.

"Calling oneself pansexual is opening up to every human possibility," said Jennifer Bass, a communications director at the Kinsey Institute and a long-time sex researcher in Bloomington, Indiana. "It's an attempt to be inclusive and to step outside of conventional categories people are put into."

As the term "bisexual" refer to those attracted to "both" male and female, pansexuals are considered as "gender-blind". In Greek, "pan" means "all", "homo" means "the same", "hetero" means "different" and "poly" means "many".

Although many think "pansexual" is a millennial term, the word actually originated back in the early-to-mid 1900's. According to Google Trends, the word became popular in the internet in 2007, right after the year when "genderqueer" was widely used in the LGBT community.

Aside from Miley Cyrus, other famous pansexuals include rapper Angel Haze, politician Mary Gonzalez, and YouTube video blogger Laci Green.

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