Wayne Brady is ready to embrace his sexuality. After years of outwardly identifying as a heterosexual man, the TV personality just announced that he identifies as pansexual.
The "Let's Make a Deal" host was previously married to Diana Lasso from 1993 to 1995 and Mandie Taketa from 1999 to 2008. In a new interview with People, Brady revealed that he has been attracted to men in the past, but he hid his sexual identity because he was raised to believe that "gay" is a derogatory term.
“And because I live in today’s world, and it’s scary as s—,” he said.
What is pansexual?
Per GLAAD, the term pansexual is used to describe someone who has "the capacity to form enduring physical, romantic, and/ or emotional attractions to any person, regardless of gender identity."
Brady also offered up his own personal interpretation of the term.
“So I came to pansexual because — and I know that I’m completely messing up the dictionary meaning — but to me, pan means being able to be attracted to anyone who identifies as gay, straight, bi, transsexual or nonbinary,” he said.
The 51-year-old added that he can be attracted to “any of these people or types physically, but I could be attracted to the person that is there.”
Bisexual vs. pansexual: What's the difference?
GLAAD classifies pansexual as one of “several terms under the bi+ umbrella.”
Per GLAAD, bisexual is a term that describes “a person who has the potential to be physically, romantically, and/or emotionally attracted to people of more than one gender, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, or to the same degree.” The “bi” in bisexual “refers to genders the same as and different from one’s own gender” and doesn’t necessarily mean attraction to only men and women.
Bi+, meanwhile, is a term inclusive of everyone who has "the potential to be attracted to more than one gender," GLAAD explains.
Pansexual is part of the bi+ community. Pansexual people may have "enduring" physical, romantic or emotional attraction to people of the same or different genders, according to GLAAD.
Brady addressed the relation between bisexuality and pansexuality in his interview with People.
“In doing my research, both with myself and just with the world, I couldn’t say if I was bisexual, because I had to really see what that was, especially because I really have not gotten a chance to act on anything,” he said.
However, GLAAD notes that people who are bisexual "need not have had specific sexual experiences to be bisexual."
Who are some other pansexual celebrities?
In addition to Brady, there are several other celebrities who have spoken out about pansexuality in recent years.
Singer Janelle Monae shared with Rolling Stone in 2018 that she identified as bisexual for a while before learning about pansexuality.
"(I) was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.’ I’m open to learning more about who I am," she said. "Being a queer Black woman in America, (as) someone who has been in relationships with both men and women — I consider myself to be a free-a--motherf---er."
Actor Mae Whitman addressed her pansexual identity in 2021 on social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, and began the conversation by applauding Disney's inclusive animated series “The Owl House.”
“Just taking a moment to say I am SO proud to be even a small part of a show like The Owl House,” she wrote on Twitter at the time. “Being pansexual myself, I wish I had such incredible characters like Amity and Luz in my life when I was growing up. Queer representation is so so so important :,) keep it up world! #TOH.”
After coming out as a member of the LGBTQ community in 2021, JoJo Siwa explained that she was trying to figure out her sexuality.
“I like queer. Technically I would say that I am pansexual because that’s how I have always been my whole life is just like, my human is my human,” she said.
In March 2021, Demi Lovato used the word pansexual to describe herself and said she was attracted to men, women and "anything" in between.
“I’m so fluid now, and a part of the reason why I am so fluid is because I was, like, super closeted off,” the singer said.
Two months later, Lovato came out as nonbinary.
In 2022, “Hunger Games” star Jena Malone discussed her pansexuality. “I love humans. So there’s that,” she said at the time.
What is the pansexual flag?
The pansexual flag is represented by three horizontal stripes in the following colors: hot pink, yellow and blue.
According to the Gay Times, pink represents attraction to women, blue to men and yellow to nonbinary people.