Pansexuality (often shortened to pan) is the attraction to people regardless to gender. Pansexual people may be described as being "gender blind" showing that gender is not a factor in their attraction to a person.
Pansexuality is often compared to bisexuality or omnisexuality, however while those sexualities may be attracted to all or some genders they may feel a different attraction depending on the gender. For example, a bisexual person's attraction to one gender might feel different to their attraction to another. Omnisexuality refers to attraction to all genders, with gender as a factor in attraction. Pansexuality, on the other hand, does not care about gender what so ever (although, some individuals who are pansexual may still have a preference). The romantic counterpart to this is panromantic.
Flag and Other Symbols
The pansexual flag consists of three stripes, pink, representing attraction to women, yellow representing attraction to non-binary people, and blue, representing attraction to men.
Another common symbol for pansexuality is the P with an arrow and crossed tail. The cross of the tail represents the cross on the symbol for Venus (♀), used to represent women. The arrow represents the arrow on the symbol for Mars (♂), used to represent men. The symbol predates the flag and is still occasionally used today.
Etymology
The prefix pan- comes from the Greek word for "all" or "every".