Singer and actress Demi Lovato says that she identifies as “pansexual” and a “proud” member of the so-called “Alphabet Mafia,” a pejorative nickname for “queer” and “LGBTQIA+” people.
Lovato made the comments in an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast released Saturday. When asked by host Joe Rogan whether she wants to have children of her own, Lovato replied that her life has not been going “according to plan,” but “in this moment, I want to adopt [children], for sure.”
“I also don’t know if I’m going to end up with a guy, so I can’t really, like, see myself maybe even getting pregnant,” she stated, adding, “I’m so fluid now, and a part of the reason why I am so fluid is because I was, like, super closeted off.”
Rogan reacted by asking if she meant that she is “sexually fluid,” as in, “you like girls, you like boys?”
“Yeah, yeah, [I like] anything, really,” Lovato replied.
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“What do they call that? ‘Pansexual’ or something like that?'” Rogan asked. Lovato responded, “Yeah, yeah, pansexual.”
The term “pansexual” means being romantically attracted to anyone, regardless of whether they are a man, a woman, a man who identifies as a woman, or a woman who identifies as a man.
“That’s hilarious,” Rogan reacted. “It used to be ‘bi.’ It used to be, ‘she’s bi,’ and now it’s, like, someone’s ‘pansexual.'”
“I heard someone call the LGBTQIA+ community the ‘alphabet mafia,'” Lovato added. “And I was, like, that’s it, that’s what I’m going with. I’m going with that. So yeah, I’m a part of the alphabet mafia, and proud.”
Lovato added that she realized she became aware of her own sexuality after watching an infamous on-screen lesbian kiss in the 1999 film Cruel Intentions.
“I saw Cruel Intentions when I was a kid, and saw Sarah Michelle Gellar, and what’s her face kiss — Selma Blair — and I was, like, ‘Oh, I like that,'” she said. “But, like, felt a lot of shame, because growing up in Texas, as a Christian, that’s very frowned upon.”
“And so, any attraction that I ever had to a female at a young age, I shut it down before I even let myself process what I was feeling,” she added.
In 2017, an executive editor at the Huffington Post attacked Lovato for refusing to talk about her sexuality in public. Michelson claimed it was “total bullshit” that the singer wouldn’t discuss her sexuality.
But now, the pop star appears to be much more open about it.
Last week, Lovato — who was previously engaged to actor Max Ehrich — told Entertainment Weekly that she is “too gay to marry a man right now” and that she has “fully embraced” being “hella queer” after calling off her engagement.
The actress also recently told Glamour that calling off her engagement has helped her to “live my truth.”
“When I started getting older, I started realizing how queer I really am,” Lovato said.
“This past year I was engaged to a man, and when it didn’t work, I was like, This is a huge sign,” she added. “I thought I was going to spend my life with someone. Now that I wasn’t going to, I felt this sense of relief that I could live my truth.”
The singer added that she “felt better” after she “hooked up with a girl.”
Lovato isn’t the only celebrity to have recently come out as “pansexual.”
Last year, British model Lottie Moss came out as pansexual, stating, “I’m pansexual so I don’t really mind any gender — it kinda changes every day as well. It depends on who I meet.”
In 2015, former Disney Channel star Miley Cyrus announced that she was pansexual, stating, “I’m very open about it — I’m pansexual.”
The concept of pansexuality has also appeared in Hollywood blockbusters, such as Solo: A Star Wars Story, as Hollywood screenwriter Jonathan Kasdan said in 2018 that the iconic Star Wars character Lando Calrissian is a pansexual.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, on Parler @alana, and on Instagram.
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