It is hard to believe in this day and age that it was not so long ago when the authenticity of bi people or pansexual or pan romantic people were even an issue. All the people I know in the LGBTQ community would accept without reservation the concept that love is love. Even if a particular type of person were not their personal cup of tea, they would respect someone else’s choices.

As someone who for many years thought she was a heterosexual male and then discovered that she was actually a demisexual panromantic female as she began to transition, it never occurred to me that external biological equipment would ever be the determining factor in whom someone could love. Love is a matter of connection on an emotional and spiritual level with someone else. That, at least in my case, leads to the desire to develop and deepen it in a more intimate and physical fashion. Love is gender blind as to whom one is attracted to and connects with spiritually. The physical body parts merely require attention to details which can be worked out no matter the equipment involved. People who love one another can have a satisfying sexual relationship no matter what kind of people they are.

It is unfortunate that Anne received such criticism and resistance when she first identified a more fluid and broader sense of sexuality. It is appalling to think that her careful choices and thoughtful explanations could have ever been so blindly and cruelly criticized.