Labels

Alright, so I need to talk about a mildly controversial thing. In the land of unconventional sexuality, it is expected that an individual choose to identify with a certain term for their orientation. "Are you a lesbian? Or are you bi?" I have no issue with all of these terms, but I've become aware of their lack of importance in people's lives.
When I was in the process of discovering and accepting my own sexuality, I was confused because I had always been attracted to men, but it seemed I was also attracted to women. I wasn't a lesbian, because lesbians only like women, but I wasn't straight. I was something else, and after some research on the internet I determined that I was bisexual. It made sense, and I was able to focus my energy on accepting who I was.
Fast forward to this last year, and I am spending a lot of time exploring the different places on the spectrum of sexual and gender possibility. I encounter Io Tillett Wright, a person with two x chromosomes who identifies as a man and loves women: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PhEppdwArA (hands down would marry in a heartbeat). I encounter a phenomenon called pansexuality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv5k9w6Hpi4 (Laci, I will write a Why I Love post about you, I promise). I begin to think that maybe pansexuality describes my attractions better, since I am attracted to butch girls, feminine girls, feminine men, masculine men, trangender people, genderqueer people, and the list goes on. Technically, bisexual means attraction to men and women, and that only covers part of my situation. So am I pansexual? Probably.
At this point, I don't really care about my personal "label." If I had to choose one, I would go with queer, because it's open-ended and I'm rather a fan of reclaiming a negative term, but if you tell someone you're queer, they interrogate you about what exactly you're into. Men? Women? Are you talking about your gender? I met someone at the pride parade who told me she didn't use a label to describe her sexuality, and I decided that at the end of the day, I think all that matters is that we are free to love who we want. I love being unconventional, and I think people are beautiful. Let's all just stop making a fuss about it, ok?