“When I was 17, they all knew:” Demi Lovato talks about being queer on ‘Coming Out 2020’

Amber AsalyComing Out 2020, hosted by Demi Lovato and Queer Eye’s Tan France, is now available to stream on the Facebook App page and on Facebook.com.   The special coincides with National Coming Out Day this Sunday, October 11. In the one…

By ABC Audio on October 9, 2020

Amber AsalyComing Out 2020, hosted by Demi Lovato and Queer Eye‘s Tan France, is now available to stream on the Facebook App page and on Facebook.com.   The special coincides with National Coming Out Day this Sunday, October 11.

In the one-hour special, which also features appearances by Ruby Rose, stylist Law Roach, drag queen Trixie Mattel and Tyler Oakley, Demi gets real about realizing that she was queer early on in her life.

“It was definitely when I was young and definitely should not have been watching Cruel Intentions but did,” Demi recalls. “And it was that scene where they made out on the park lawn and I was just like…‘Oh wait a minute, I really like that, I want to try it.’ Then when I was 17, I did get down with that.” 

“I pretty much told all of my friends and older sister when I was 17,” she continues. “They all knew [I was queer] before I brought it to my parents, and then the public. Those were my three phases.”

Because she made her sexuality public later in her career, Demi says, fans might not be aware who she’s actually singing to in some of her songs.

“There were times I wrote songs about girls that my fans thought I wrote about guys,” she explains. “I’m surprised that some of them didn’t figure out that some of the songs were for certain people. I was sharing it with the world, yet I wasn’t being completely obvious with what I was talking about. Music was my safe space.”

She then laughs that now her fans will be in front of their computers with a “magnifying glass,” trying to find the clues in her catalog.

By Andrea Dresdale
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