Nonbinary actor and pop star Demi Lovato has issued a message of love and support for trans people in the wake of Donald Trump’s immediate attacks against the community upon taking office.
“If you are trans or nonbinary like me, please know that I see you, I feel you, I am with you,” Lovato wrote in their Instagram story. “You are validated, you are loved and you are not alone. No one can take away our identities and no one can tell us who we are or aren’t. We will get thru this. I love you.”
Related:
Trump’s slew of day one executive orders included one declaring that there are only two sexes (male and female) and repealing numerous pro-transgender memoranda and orders made by former President Joe Biden.
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The order directs federal agencies to start using the term “sex” and stop using the term “gender,” to stop interpreting anti-discrimination laws as being inclusive of transgender people, and to only issue government documents that reflect a person’s sex assigned at birth.
Trump has made it clear he plans to follow through on the many anti-trans threats he made throughout his campaign. Lovato’s message speaks to many in the trans community who are terrified for their futures.
Lovato came out as nonbinary in 2021 in a video posted to social media after previously identifying as queer.
“The past year and a half, I’ve been doing some healing and self-reflective work. And through this work, I’ve had this revelation that I identify as nonbinary,” they said in the video. “With that said, I’ll officially be changing my pronouns to they/them.”
“I feel this best represents the fluidity I feel in my gender expression and allows me to feel most authentic and true to the person I both know I am and am still discovering.”
They have used their platform to advocate for LGBTQ+ equality and progressive politics in the past. In 2017, Lovato took the first transgender state lawmaker in the U.S. – then-Virginia state Delegate and now state Senator Danica Roem (D) – to the American Music Awards, saying that Roem “put up with a lot of hate and bulls**t by people who said she couldn’t win but she did.”
After coming out as nonbinary, they spoke out about being misgendered.
“It feels weird to me when I get called a ‘she’ or a ‘her,’” they explained. “I understand that people might have a hard time adjusting to it, because it is something new, but I want to encourage people to keep trying. I understand that it’s a process to get used to. Sometimes I still mess up myself, but it’s OK.”
Lovato decided they were okay with she/her or they/them pronouns after finding it “exhausting” to continue to educate people.
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