While speaking to LGBTQ reporter Kate Sosin at The 19th Summit virtual conference last week, singer Demi Lovato said that, while they currently identify as non-binary, that could change in the future.
“There might be a time where I identify as trans,” the 29-year-old shared. “I don’t know what this looks like for me. There might be a time where I identify as non-binary and gender-nonconforming my entire life.”
They continued, “Or maybe there’s a period of time when I get older that I identify as a woman, I don’t know what that looks like, but for me, in this moment right now, this is how I identify.”
The comments, though well-intentioned, didn’t land well with people on Twitter. Many wanted to support Lovato, but felt their words about possibly identifying as trans in the future were confusing and did more harm than good.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Here’s what they’re saying…
please listen:
i’ve been trying to state something similar to this for so long but haven’t been able to do so because i lack the lived experience of being trans but she explains it perfectly.
(she is speaking on gender identity and demi lovato’s statements on it) pic.twitter.com/Sa6ZR9Qx87— you (@TylartheHooper) August 20, 2021
I’m sorry but surely Demi Lovato saying that they won’t always identify as non binary and may one day identify as trans is offensive to people genuinely trying to get people to take it all seriously? You can’t just pick and choose like you’re shopping for groceries??
— Lozzie? (@LaurenJade97_x) August 21, 2021
Usually I don’t question anyone’s “identity”… but what is up with Demi Lovato? They’re giving Trisha Paytas vibes. How do you say “there might be a day where I identify as trans”? Either you are… or you aren’t. That’s not really an identity you can choose.
— ?? (@_KayRie) August 20, 2021
Demi Lovato taking away the light of real trans ppl irks me. Ftb
— g. (@gabysevens) August 21, 2021
demi lovato saying they might “identify” as trans one day is actually…incredibly ignorant?
— ips (@ipsssen) August 22, 2021
Like she’s choosing an outfit.
Demi Lovato says they one day could identify as trans https://t.co/CmcwTwUCaL via @pagesix
— Shaun Proulx (@ShaunProulx) August 20, 2021
I cannot be the only person who can’t stand Demi Lovato. “There might be a time where I identify as trans” GIRL. You are slapping people in the face who have felt uncomfortable in their own bodies since they could remember. You’re so self involved my god.
— Hailey (@hb_bby103) August 20, 2021
reminder that Demi Lovato isn’t good rep for trans/nonbinary people. I’ll die on this hill
— cowboy (@storpikkenergi) August 21, 2021
Demi Lovato is irritating me because it’s people really out here struggling with their identities and being accepted for who they are. It’s not a “I might identify as trans one day” or “I might identify as a woman when I’m older”. Like this not a joke
— And still, I sigh… (@JanMarie__) August 21, 2021
Demi Lovato: "I'm non-binary and one day I might even be TRANS and later on I might be a woman!"
Me: "Congratulations on not knowing what any of those terms mean but loudly using them anyways."
— Valkyrie Thunderbitch (@ValkyrieLadyK) August 20, 2021
Demi Lovato girl.. you can’t just be trans because it’s cool for the summer ????? pic.twitter.com/sdc15sJLzK
— denisemalik. (@unapologetic_dd) August 21, 2021
Demi lovato stating she “might identify as trans in the future”……???!!??! At this point she’s saying absolutely ANYTHING to stay relevant and it’s disgusting how she’s using the LGBT community as a platform to do it.
— Karissa Miller (@KarissaaMillerr) August 21, 2021
According to GLAAD’s Transgender FAQ page:
Everyone has a gender identity, an internal sense of self and perception of one’s own gender. For some people their gender identity is the same as the sex they were assigned at birth (cisgender) and for some people their gender identity is different than the sex they were assigned at birth (transgender).
There have always been transgender people who felt that their gender identity didn’t fall neatly into the two binary categories of “man” or “woman.” In the past, trans people who felt that way used the words genderqueer and genderfluid to describe that experience. While those words are still used today, it’s now more common for people to call themselves non-binary if they feel their gender identity is something other than “man” or “woman.” People who use the word non-binary to describe their gender identity typically also call themselves transgender.
…Language is evolving in real time. But it’s important to understand that there is no one right or wrong way to be non-binary, just like there is no right or wrong way to be transgender.
Graham Gremore is the Features Editor and a Staff Writer at Queerty. Follow him on Twitter @grahamgremore.
Cam
Anything that feeds into the old bigoted narrative that LGBTQ identities are a choice makes me nervous. I see that Lavato is figuring herself out and is on her journey and her heart is in the right place, but I fear Republican bigots are going to once again start using this as a “See, they CAN choose” attack.
That said, Demi seems much happier than she has in the past so glad she is achieving that.
GlobeTrotter
I don’t get why anyone would get upset. She’s simply confirming what many of us sensible adults have suspected for a long time, that this gender madness with everyone getting to choose their own preferred pronouns is nothing but a dangerous fad perpetuated by confused and impressionable individuals and encouraged by militant activists with an ax to grind. The sad irony is that this fashionable movement actually hurts gay people and trivializes the pain and struggle of those individuals who’ve been dealing with their trans identity for decades. One of my former bosses was one such individual, 50+ years old, she once confided to me that it took her DECADES before she could finally own up to herself and take the first step to appear in public as a woman. Talking to her you can actually feel the internal pain and conflicting self-hatred that has plagued her her entire life. She totally rejects people like Demi Lovatos who give the impression that being trans is like trying to figure out which summer dress to wear. And the sad thing is, all the adults have left the room. There is no one to tell these kids to grow up!
drmiller
Snooze. You’re muted for 15 minutes.
LumpyPillows
DrRude.
Neoprene
Yawn. Attention seeking celebrity nonsense. She knows who her fan base is, but looks like she went too far even for the woke police. One thing is clear, though. After her silly yogurt shop rant a few months back we know she ain’t the brightest gal, or dude.
bsg1967
Offensive idiot
Jake123
She’s literally becoming Trisha Paytas.
Hank31
Here’s the updated trans orthodoxy which you must believe:
1. It’s offensive for Lovato to say she might identify as trans in the future, because that devalues the meaning of being trans and is insulting to real trans people.
2. A woman is anyone who identifies as a woman, and anyone can identify as a woman. This in no way devalues womanhood or insults real women, because there’s no such thing as real women.
GlobeTrotter
Exactly! Another trans orthodoxy, which I just read on Wikipedia, goes like this:
1. Everyone is “assigned” a sex at birth.
2. If your gender “aligns” with your “assigned” sex, then you’re “cis”.
3. If your gender does not “align” with your “assigned” sex, then you’re trans.
This propaganda thrives on the lie that a child’s sex is “assigned” – it is not! A baby’s sex is determined after careful OBSERVATION of its physical characteristics. They would have us believe that sex is some arbitrary ruling made by biased doctors. No it’s not, it’s based on physical observation!
Cam
@GlobeTrotter @Hank31
LOL!!! Two of the right wing troll screenames. It can never resist responding to it’s own comments. My favorite part is the “Which I just read on Wikipedia” phrase you added in to explain why you’re referencing the same wording thinking it would make you seem like a different person
But the BEST part troll was that when I tried to go to Wikipedia to look up what you claimed was there I got the following statement.
“The page “Trans orthodoxy” does not exist. You can ask for it to be created, but consider checking the search results below to see whether the topic is already covered.”
LOL! You’re the worst troll ever.
Den
No offense but it is pretty obvious that by “trans orthodoxy” ‘Trotter’ means he takes those statements to be dogma pushed by the trans community, NOT that there is an actual wikipedia page called “trans orthodoxy”.
But unsurprisingly he (or she?) fails to understand that “assigned at birth” means, in fact, indicated by external morphology; not that someone assigns it. But for the record, birth sex is not assigned “after careful observation”, but by amniocenteses (sometimes), by sonogram (sometimes) or by a perfunctory glance at birth. Sadly, up until recently intersexed infants (those born with developmental defects to their external genitalia) were, in fact arbitrarily assigned a sex based on what was thought easier for the plastic surgeon rather than what genetic testing revealed. This often had very destructive effects on the lives of those individuals, and still does as these foolish choices are still sometimes made. In exactly the same was as with Trans people, the incongruity between their physical bodies and what they know inside leads to depression and often suicidal ideation.
GlobeTrotter
@Cam: See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_assignment#Terminology
@Den: “But unsurprisingly he (or she?) fails to understand that ‘assigned at birth’ means, in fact, indicated by external morphology; not that someone assigns it.”
Have you ever had a conversation with or listened to lectures given by proponents of this theory? When they say “assigned at birth”, they literally mean that a child was ASSIGNED a sex based on the arbitrary determination of biased individuals (doctors, nurses, midwives, society, etc.). I’ve seen several lectures by gender theorists where they make it a point to clarify exactly what they mean by the word “assigned”.
“But for the record, birth sex is not assigned ‘after careful observation’, but by amniocenteses (sometimes), by sonogram (sometimes) or by a perfunctory glance at birth. ”
You’ve lost me here, but what you’ve described is the textbook definition of “observation”. Scientists and other practitioners observe by way of eyesight or instruments.
Cam
@GlobeTrotter
It’s adorable you keep trying. I went to the page you linked to, and now I see why you didn’t post a quote from it. Because it was a terminology page where the term didn’t exist.
Wow, you are a TERRIBLE troll.
GlobeTrotter
@Cam: you have wayyy too much time on your hands, but on the other hand, all this unsolicited attention from you is quite flattering. Be careful not to let it turn into an obsession however. The last thing I need is another cyber-stalker…
Hank31
@Globetrotter
Trans activists introduced “assigned sex at birth” for the same reason they constantly alter their terms and linguistic rules. It’s because they find themselves constantly running up against reality, the reality that they are not, and can never become, what they wish to be.
Their way of coping with this is to constantly change language to bolster their fantasy. So for a long time, TRAs would say that they are “men trapped in a women’s bodies” or “born in the wrong body” or that they have a “woman’s brain in a man’s body.” But all of those phrases clashed with their fantasy that there is no such thing as a “man’s body” or a “woman’s body.”
So that went out the window and we got the claim that sex (male/female) is biological and gender (man/woman/girl/boy) is social, and while there is such a thing as a “male body,” (sex) there is no such thing as a “man’s body” (gender). Thus, being trans meant that your gender (girl/woman) did not align with your sex (male). You still had a woman’s body even though you had a big D, but it didn’t align with your sex (male).
But then TRAs decided that they needed to eradicate biological sex altogether and make it just another social construct. If they didn’t do that, then people could still distinguish a “transwoman” from a real woman by focusing on the transwoman’s maleness. So out went “sex” and in came “sex assigned at birth.” This allows the TRA to harbor the fantasy that there is no male or female body, and that its all just a matter of doctor’s taking a guess. In that sense, the only difference b/t a transwoman and a woman is that the transwoman has incurred a recording error. In war zones or other places with no hospitals and no one making a record, that means that there are no male or female babies. This is the delusional world of trans activism.
Cam
@GlobeTrotter
Translation: The right wing troll lied about “Just learning about “Trans orthodoxy” on Wikipedia because their isn’t a page on it.
It then tried to post a link claiming THAT is where the term was, but going to that link, there was nothing on it, so again the troll lied and got caught.
Now tries to deflect, as usual by pointing the conversation at me. LOL
Oh, and having your other screename (Hank31) respond again to distract works better if it doesn’t do it one minute after your other post.
Again, your troll game is sad and weak.
SDR94103
she’s just jumping on the bandwagon.
Thad
When is Lovato doing the Atlantic City beach concert she blew off because of drugs?
Maybe after the concert I’ll pay attention to this loser.
BigJohnSF
Please transition so we can stop with the ludicrous “they” bullshit
frankcar1965
She always looks like a MTF trannny to me anyway.
Jon in Canada
I’m not sure if I should be offended by the lackadaisical nature of her comment or angry because it creates a rather problematic narrative and, by doing so, does a disservice to actual trans people.
This smells more of a “look at me” stunt than an actual conversation about being trans.
IanHunter
She has a lot going on in her life. She is trying to figure everything out. It’s a lot.
inbama
She’s still “figuring things out.”
Meanwhile, she and fellow nonbinary narcissists have forced formerly intelligent people and media outlets to use “they” in place of he or she.
To think gays and lesbians were once cultural icons like Cole Porter. Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams and Virginia Wolf – just to name of few. Now we’re reduced to playing word-policemen for 29 year olds who still haven’t “found themselves” and probably never will.
hotdogla
They is figuring it out. Remember a couple of years ago when it seemed like everyones dad was coming out as gay? Perhaps Demi has found the strength to start doing the work on themselves and will be out as trans when they are ready.
LumpyPillows
Yeah, there is something wrong with all of this.
alexpof
she´s becomig a joke
whammykiss
Is this before or after her bottom surgery?