Awareness
July 6th marks Omnisexual Visibility Day, a time for all of us to lift up Omnisexual voices, learn about the Omnisexual community, and recognize how truly valid those who identify with the term are. While not as well known as identities like Bisexual or Pansexual, that has no bearing on the validity and comfort that is found in the term for people across the gender, sexuality, and relationship diverse (GSRD) community.
According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use of the term “Omnisexual” in relation to its modern day definition was in 1960, and it has become more and more well known ever since, particularly with the advent of the internet. Omnisexuality, an identity falling under the multi-sexual label, describes a person with the potential for attraction to any gender—much like Pansexuality. The key difference between the two identities is that for Omnisexual people, gender does play a role in the attraction. This is something that can manifest in a number of ways, such as having a preference for one gender over the others or having different types of attraction to different genders.. Some people tend to lump Omnisexual and Pansexual people together, but that couldn’t be less accurate, or further from what Omnisexual and Pansexual people want. Omnisexual and Pansexual people are two distinct, vibrant groups, equally worthy of respect, awareness, and recognition.
The Omnisexual Flag was designed by Deviantart user Pastelmemer around July 4th, 2015. The pink and blue stripes of the flag represent attraction to femininity and women, and masculinity and men, while the dark purple stripe in the middle represents attraction to those who fall outside of the gender binary. While relatively new in the grand scheme of GSRD flags, the Omnisexual flag has been widely adopted as a loved symbol of the Omnisexual community.
Omnisexual Folks You Might Know.
Although accurate and explicit representation is still an ongoing struggle for everyone in the GSRD community—Omnisexual people very much included—you might be surprised to know that a number of well-known characters have identified as Omnisexual over the years. Jack Harkness, of Doctor Who and Torchwood fame, explicitly referred to himself as Omnisexual in the 2009 novel “The House That Jack Built.” For any Trekkies, Andrew J. Robinson, who played Elim Garak on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, one stated that he “planned Garak not as homosexual or heterosexual but omnisexual,” something that he unfortunately had to remove from his portrayal after backlash. Of course, even if something isn’t explicit, reading a character a certain way can lend immense amounts of depth to their development.
Lastly, Vancouver’s own Ryan Reynolds has thrown himself into playing the superhero Deadpool with gusto. While there is some debate about Deadpool’s preferred label—if he has one at all—a number of writers have used Omnisexual when referring to his romantic inclinations. Most of this representation is sadly confined to the comics, but Reynolds has done his very best to infuse his portrayal in the Deadpool film series with as much joyful, chaotic subtext as possible.
Omnisexual Visibility Day is a wonderful reminder of the diversity of the GSRD community, and a reminder that just because you haven’t ‘heard’ of a certain term before, doesn’t make it any less important, valued, or real. The most important part of a term of identity is that the person using it feels as though it represents them, and it’s only kind that we listen and learn, and refrain from trying to squish our wonderful, diverse rainbow into neat, orderly boxes.
Written by: Holly Mitchell
