“M-spec” is short for “multiple-attraction spectrum”

It’s an inclusive umbrella term for the many different ways people express attraction beyond gender. M-spec includes people who use words for themselves such as bi, pan, omni, fluid, flexible, curious, and more, as well as some people who don’t use labels at all. Some people also use m-spec as an identity term of its own.

Labels are tools we use to understand ourselves and communicate with others. There are many ways to choose and use them! Here are just a few ways people use identity labels:

• Identifying with a single label.
• Combining multiple labels.
• Using different labels in different situations.
• Existing in flux between labels.
• Gradually shifting labels over time.

There are many great reason to use the umbrella term “m-spec”! Not only does it make space for the split attraction model (that’s just a fancy name for the idea that romantic orientation and sexual orientation can differ), “m-spec” also doesn’t spotlight one single label the way other umbrella terms such as “Bi+” do.

At the Bi Pan Library, we provide resources for and about all people who are attracted to more than one gender or for whom attraction has nothing to do with gender. The library values all these experiences, and does not exist to police the uses or definitions of identity terms.