My reaction to the reactions of Wayne Brady coming out as Pansexual in Categories.
Some reactions belong to one category.
Category 1 (the decent ones): "Yay. Live your truth." "Glad he can be himself in this medium." "Yay, more representation" "I knew it, but I am happy for him anyways."
Category 2: "Why is he coming out? We don't care who he sleeps with. He doesn't need to broadcast it. He is doing it for attention. He is married so what's the point?"
Also some of the Category 1: "Why isn't XYZ coming out?"
Category 3: "We always knew." "We always knew he was gay." "He's a coward to admit he is gay." "Has gay become so boring that people don't come out as gay anymore?" "Give him another year, he will be gay."
Category 4: 4A" "Is Pansexual another way to say bisexual?" 4B: Nooo, bisexuals are only attracted to men and women and pansexuals include trans and nonbinary people." (Ugh!).
So, my four observations:
1) I am glad this guy is living his truth and I am so happy with the additional representation of bi+ people in general and men attracted to more than one gender in particular. I wished I followed him more.
2) People don't owe you a reason for coming out or not doing so. Some people want to do it to live their truth out loud. Some people do it because they want to be an example for future generations.
3) It's hard for bi and pan men to come out as such. In fact plenty of bi and pan men stay in the closet by pretending to be straight or "coming out as gay" (but continuing to be in the bi closet in the process).
4) Bisexual means "attracted to genders like my own and genders different from my own." It's also an umbrella term where pansexual is included.