Biromantic, sometimes shortened to biro, refers to someone who is romantically attracted to any gender, ranging from 2 to all genders, or individuals whose genders may be the same or different than theirs. They may or may not also be sexually attracted to those genders as well. Biromantic individuals may or may not have a preference and may or may not feel a difference between genders.
Biromantic can be similar to panromantic and other pluralian identities. The difference between these identities usually comes down to individual preference, particularly where individuals may feel that different terms communicate their individual experience of attraction with more accuracy.
The sexual counterpart is bisexual.
History
While the term was allegedly coined between 1995 and 2000,[1], the first known use of the word is in a news article from 2005 about asexual individuals.[2]
Like most terms related to the split attraction model, it likely emerged as we know it now from the forum boards of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) around 2005. The earliest known definition of biromantic comes from Urban Dictionary user Biromantic on April 20, 2008,[3] which refers to the split attraction model.
Flag
The original biromantic flag was created by DeviantArt user Pride-Flags on April 26, 2016.[4] The same user created an alternate flag on May 9, 2016.[5] Both add a heart to the bi pride flag.
Another alternate biromantic flag was created by an anonymous creator on October 24, 2020. The top purple stripe of that flag represents attraction to two or more genders. The lighter purple stripe represents varioriented biromantics. The white stripe represents transgender, non-binary, cisn't, and intersex biromantics. The orange stripe represents perioriented biromantics. The dark blue stripe represents aroace biromantics, typically in the case of angled aroaces.
On March 10, 2021, FANDOM user RemyWest123 created another alternate flag meant to be more inclusive by expanding the purple stripe, which is typically a thinner stripe used to represent non-binary individuals, and adding gradations of all of the colors to represent a greater amount of gender experiences. On March 21, 2021, FANDOM user CallieCat030 created another alternate flag, using a heart in their design to harken back to the original biromantic flags.
References
- ↑ [https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/biromantic Dictionary.com entry on biromantic. ]
- ↑ [https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.smh.com.au/national/no-sex-please-im-not-into-it-20050416-gdl50l.html Article in the Sydney Morning Herald about biromantic asexual people. ]
- ↑ [https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Biromantic Urban Dictionary entries on biromantic. ]
- ↑ [https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.deviantart.com/pride-flags/art/Biromantic-Pride-Flag-1-605329777 DeviantArt post on the biromantic flag. ]
- ↑ [https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.deviantart.com/pride-flags/art/Biromantic-607943792 DeviantArt post with an alternate biromantic flag. ]