Lizzo Corrects the Paparazzi Until They Get Demi Lovato’s Pronouns Right

A Demi Lovato fan account tweeted a video showing Lizzo correcting the paparazzi multiple times when they misgendered fellow pop star, Demi Lovato.

Both Lovato and Lizzo are slated to perform at Jazz Fest 2021 in New Orleans, leading to the paparazzi asking if they would be performing together. Lizzo said she would if the two had a song together, and after taking a couple of pictures with fans, the paparazzi asked if Lizzo’s comment about having a song together was a message to Lovato about a potential collaboration.

Only, when addressing Lovato, they continued to use she instead of they.

Back in May, Lovato revealed that they are non-binary and that they would now be using they/them pronouns.

“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. With that said, I’ll officially be 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 still am discovering.” – Demi Lovato.

Lizzo, complete with a “get it right” finger point, made sure to correct the paparazzi’s misuse of she. Technically, the first paparazzi error slipped by, or perhaps Lizzo was giving them a chance to correct themselves, but when the misgendering persisted Lizzo put a stop to it. “They,” she said, followed by, “Their team. Demi goes by they,” when more misgendering occurred.

The paparazzi released a chorus of ohs that I mentally pictured as the Pikachu “oh” face, followed by one going, “Sorry about that,” and another going, “Thank you for the correction.”

Lovato would go on to reshare the paparazzi video and thank Lizzo for the support, calling her a “fucking queen” and sending their love to her.

Some have wondered just how genuine that thank you for the correction was from the paparazzi.

Regardless of whether or not the reaction to being corrected was genuine (though if you’re curious I felt a heavy eye roll vibe from the paparazzi, too), I’m happy that the correction was even made in the first place. Lizzo was so set on correcting the paparazzi with Lovato’s correct pronouns that she wouldn’t entertain any more questions.

That sort of allyship is important.

As many queer people have pointed out (especially now that Pride Month is over) it’s easy to say that you’ll be supportive, but actually putting it into practice is not always something folks do. Our issues aren’t trending at the moment and everyone’s Twitter profiles are losing the “I support you” rainbow, so I pretty much expect society to go about their business when someone does wrong by someone in the queer community.

Unless if it trends, then maybe we’ll get a hashtag.

Honestly, the only time I ever expected to see Lovato’s pronouns being corrected so publically is if Lovato did it themselves, which would mean that they would be the ones facing the misgendering directly. It’s important that allies do the correcting, too, so Lovato—and non-binary folks in general—can see that they’re being heard and respected. Also? So they don’t have to deal with educating someone on top of dealing with the frustrations of being misgendered.

Lizzo essentially gave a masterclass on how we should respond when someone misgenders a person. I hope we all can keep this energy going.

(Image: Emma McIntyre/Rich Fury/Getty Images)

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Briana Lawrence

Briana (she/her - bisexual) is trying her best to cosplay as a responsible adult. Her writing tends to focus on the importance of representation, whether it’s through her multiple book series or the pieces she writes. After de-transforming from her magical girl state, she indulges in an ever-growing pile of manga, marathons too much anime, and dedicates an embarrassing amount of time to her Animal Crossing pumpkin patch (it's Halloween forever, deal with it Nook)

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