I think it's similar to what happened when left handedness was destigmatized. Suddenly, there was a sharp increase in the number of people saying they were lefties. It wasn't that more people were becoming lefties. It was that more people felt free to be who they really were.

A trans person 100 years ago couldn't really come out as trans. If they did, they'd likely face a violent response. So they lived their life in suffering - maybe not even knowing why they felt so different from everyone else and thinking that there was something wrong with them.

As being trans is destigmatized (and hopefully the anti-trans stuff recently is short lived), more and more people will "come out" as trans. It's not that the actual number of trans people is increasing, but that trans people don't feel like they have to hide who they are. Eventually, like lefties, the rate will level out and stabilize.

A hundred years from now, people will be referencing trans people instead of lefties when talking about the next marginalized group that's being destigmatized.

In a more general sense, this is leaving out people who want to try something different or people who are confused. They may or may not be bi/gay/trans or whatever, but the mental health damage is from being pigeonholed. Everyone should be able to try a few things without repercussions.

I don’t know if this is still true, but it seemed like a few years ago it was considered ok for women to “experiment”, but I don’t think it ever was for guys. They should all be able to figure things out without worrying about labels or face social pressure to be one thing or another

The Kinsey report looked at this objectively in the 40's and 50's. Everyone is on a spectrum of homo/heterosexuality. Labels, social norms, politics, etc change with time and mostly exist to for "othering" people.

It's worth looking back at history. Ancient Romans make for interesting reading. Things change and tides change without logic or reason. Just be who you are and be good to others.

Younger generations are so hung up about sex they’re practically puritan

lol nope

I use bi personally, but pan people argue that they're more than two genders and they are attracted to all of them. I use bi because my sexuality is dualistic -- I have both heterosexual and homosexual attractions. The two are effectively synonymous.

What's the difference between emocore, metal core, hard-core , speedcore and death jazz?

People like to pick their own labels.

I’m neither so take this with a cup of salt:

Originally they were the same. Pan (and some others) faded from use and was largely forgotten.

When it first came back into use, there was a lot of “you’re attracted to both genders; we’re attracted to all genders” but this got a lot of pushback as being bi-phobic because it paints bisexuals as being transphobic (although if you really think about it, the accusation that this is transphobic is itself transphobic as it implies trans people are not included in “both genders”. Perhaps enby-phobic would have been a more appropriate accusation).

These days the generally accepted distinction is that pansexuals are attracted to people regardless of gender, as in gender plays no part, as opposed to bisexuals who may (or may not) be attracted differently to different genders.