In short, not at all. If you want the long version...

...I discovered what the term gay meant when I was about 6 years old, and bisexual at age 7. I always knew that I was different from other people, I had always liked boys but, I really liked girls too! When I was 8 I came out to my best friend at the time, a girl that I was very close with. She was happy for me, and it had turned out that she was bisexual too!

Later that day, with the encouragement of my friend, I came out to my mom and dad. They were rather supportive and said that as long as I was happy, that's all that mattered. They didn't care who I loved, as long as the other person made me happy, that's all that they wanted.

Hm. So, it had no effect on them you say? Well that just can't be true! A person's sexuality very much effects every part of my daily life!

Okay, okay, the story isn't over yet, don't get all bigoted yet.

Three years ago, I was sitting at my computer, watching random YouTube videos. All of a sudden I came across a video by Ashley Mardell. This video was called, Spectrums. In it, she talks about some of the possible spectrums with gender, sexuality, romantic orientation, and more. At one point she says " Do you like one gender, both, or all of them?"

Huh. All of them? This was before I fully understood the fluidity of this topic, so I was a little confused. I had thought,initially, that by calling myself bisexual I was including all the genders. This question intrigued me! I started searching more terms for sexuality and more detailed explanations of gender fluidity. I had known a few terms, androgyny, asexual, transgender, transsexual.

After awhile of searching, I came across a word. Pansexual. Having a sexual or romantic attraction to a person's personality regardless of their apparent gender, sex, or identity expression. Loving people for who they are as a person, not what they look like. I fell in love with this definition.

At this time in my life I had already been dating a man for several years, I still am dating the same man to this day. He knew I was bisexual, I knew he was bisexual, we had no issues with each other. Then I told him my newest discovery, pansexuality. He listened to me explain it, I assured him that it had no effect on how I felt about him.

He smiled, hugged me, and told me that he loved me all the same. I was happy, my beloved was still that, and my relationship with him hadn't changed.

What?! I thought you said there was going to be more to this story! I was holding my hate-filled comments back for nothing!

Relax will ya? There is still more to the story, you can just keep that hatred to yourself.

Next, I decided to tell my family. I wasn't sure how to broach the subject, should I say it without prompting? Should I test the water and bring the subject up nonchalantly, as if I was simply explaining what it was? I decided to go with the second option.

After explaining what it was, with the help of my boyfriend, my biological brother was still confused, and my friend that may as well be my brother, burst out laughing! He thought the idea was ridiculous, he couldn't understand how I could possibly love everyone. I had, apparently, not explained it well enough.

Ah ha! See?! It does effect other people, you were even mocked openly! Who you are attracted to has everything to do with society!

Alright, I'll give you that, I was indeed mocked, but you keep interrupting the story! Let me finish and then you can form an opinion.

After further discussing what pansexual meant, and explaining the various spectrums, they all finally understood what I was talking about. I love hearts, not parts. My brother and mother were understanding and told me, again, that it didn't matter as long as I was happy. My pseudo-brother apologised and told me that he didn't really care, giving me " a big pansexual hug" as he called it.

Have you noticed a recurring theme in this story, small-minded and grumpy reader? As soon as people learned what the definition of said unknown thing was, they were understanding to the concept. As long as happiness was attained, that's all that mattered.

Thank you for reading this far! This was probably the longest blog post I've made about anything. It was a journey through my memories, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!