Omnisexual: Difference between revisions

'''Omnisexuality''' (often shortened to '''omni''') is a [[multisexual]] orientation defined as the [[Sexual Attraction|sexual attraction]] to all genders, where gender often still plays a role in one's attraction. Some omnisexuals have a gender preference and some do not. ▼

Omnisexuality is also often compared to [[Bisexual|bisexuality]]. Some bisexuals are attracted to all genders, however not all bisexuals are. [[File:Omniflag alt by Annabanana181913.jpg|thumb|Alternate flag by Annabanana181913]]Some people may identify as both bisexual and omnisexual, while others may prefer one term over the other. The choice to use one identity over the other usually comes down to individual preference. For instance: some may prefer to identify as omnisexual (in addition to or instead of bisexual) if they feel it provides a more accurate representation of their orientation, while others may prefer to use a broader term such as bisexual to describe themselves. [[File:Alternate omnisexual flag...webp|thumb|An alternate omnisexual flag.]]▼

The word omnisexuality appears as early at the 1959 beat poet Lawrence Lipton's ''The Holy Barbarians'',<ref>https://archive.org/stream/holybarbarians001288mbp/holybarbarians001288mbp_djvu.txt</ref> but the first time it was described in the context of the current definition was in a 1984 text titled simply ''Sexual Choices: An Introduction to Human Sexuality''.<ref>https://books.google.com/books/about/Sexual_choices.html?id=xitHAAAAMAAJ</ref> This text described omnisexuality as "a state of attraction to all sexes", stating that some researchers believe that every individual is born omnisexual before developing their sexual attraction into the labels of homosexual, heterosexual, or other orientations.[[File:Omnisexual alternate.png|thumb|Cryptocrew's omnisexual flag.]]The term spread even further in the early 1990s as M. Jimmie Killingsworth undertook an analysis of the poet Walt Whitman.<ref>https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0895769X.1991.10542654?journalCode=vanq20</ref> In Killingsworth's study, he found that Whitman had a general omnisexual character throughout his work ''The Leaves of Grass''. In the 2010s, ''The Atlantic'' noted that his poetry expresses sexuality towards all genders, sometimes even the sea or the Earth.▼