Lizzo unapologetically stood up for her friend Demi Lovato this week when the artist was repeatedly misgendered by a reporter. The incident unfolded on Thursday when Lizzo encountered paparazzi in the streets and answered questions about her plans for the 2021 Jazz Fest in New Orleans.
"Will you be performing with her?" the reporter asked, referring to Lovato, who is also scheduled to be a part of the event’s lineup.
After the interviewer continued to use "she" and "her" in reference to the nonbinary entertainer, Lizzo put an end to the gaffe.
“Demi goes by ‘they,’” the artist said, prompting the reporter to issue an apology.
“Demi goes by ‘they’” – Lizzo corrects a paparazzi after they misgendered Demi pic.twitter.com/p9PVff08PL
— Demi Lovato News (@justcatchmedemi) July 1, 2021
Lovato later went to Instagram stories to show love for Lizzo, People reported.
“You f**king queen I love you,” the 28-year-old pop star wrote. “Thank you.”
The "I Love Me" singer came out as non-binary in May.
"Over the past year-and-a-half, I've been doing some healing and self-reflective work. And through this work, I've had the revelation that I identify as non-binary," the artist said at the time. "
With that said, I'll be officially changing my pronouns to they/them. I feel that 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 added.
Lovato admitted to previously "ignoring the truth."
"I was suppressing who I really am in order to please stylists or team members or this or that, or even fans that wanted me to be the sexy, feminine pop star in the leotard and look a certain way, you know?" they said.
The singer also recently sat down with Jane Fonda during an episode of their podcast 4D with Demi Lovato and talked more about the journey of coming out as nonbinary.
“The reasoning behind me cutting my hair off was because I was shedding all of the gender norms that had been placed on me growing up female in this world," Lovato said, according to PinkNews. "And I just always found that men were at the root of pushing their agendas on me – to be a sexy pop star, whatever would make other people the most money. And I had to break that mould because I had to find the freedom for myself in order to survive, to live.”