Celebrity Celebrity Belief & Identity Celebrity LGBTQ+ Issues Demi Lovato Opens Up About Being Pansexual: 'I'm Part of the Alphabet Mafia and Proud' Demi Lovato revealed she felt "a lot of shame" about being attracted to women when she was younger By Naledi Ushe Naledi Ushe Digital News Writer, PEOPLE People Editorial Guidelines Published on March 29, 2021 04:58PM EDT Demi Lovato opened up about coming to terms with being pansexual. The "Dancing with the Devil" singer, 28, admitted she was "super closeted off" because of her religious upbringing, but is now "proud" to be a part of the LGBTQ community. "I don't know. I'm so fluid now, and a part of the reason why I am so fluid is because I was super closeted off," she said on Saturday's episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Lovato added that she's attracted to "anything really." When Joe Rogan asked if the term "pansexual" fit her, she responded, "Yeah, pansexual." Demi Lovato Says Calling Off Recent Engagement Was a 'Huge Sign' in Recognizing Sexuality "I heard someone call the LGBTQIA+ community the alphabet mafia," she recalled, adding "That's it! That's what I'm going with." Lovato continued, "I'm part of the alphabet mafia and proud." The "Anyone" singer then revealed she had her sexual awakening when she watched the infamous kissing scene between Selma Blair and Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions. Demi Lovato. Kevin Mazur/Getty "I was like, 'Oh, I like that,' " she recalled. "But I felt a lot of shame because growing up in Texas as a Christian, that's very frowned upon." Lovato added, "Any attraction I had to a female at a young age, I shut it down before I even let myself process what I was feeling." Jamie McCarthy/Getty Sarah Michelle Gellar, Selma Blair Redo Cruel Intentions Kiss Behind Glass for MTV Movie & TV Awards The singer also opened up about how her engagement to Max Ehrich, which was called off in September two months after Ehrich proposed, affected her views on her sexuality. "I was engaged to a man last year. I totally thought I'd be married, maybe pregnant right now, and that's not the case," she said. Lovato made similar remarks in her March cover of Glamour regarding how her engagement to Ehrich, 29, was eye-opening in "realizing how queer [she] really [is]." Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. "This past year, I was engaged to a man and when it didn't work, I was like, 'This is a huge sign,' " she said. "I thought I was going to spend my life with someone. Now that I wasn't going to, I felt this sense of relief that I could live my truth." The "Sober" singer continued, "I hooked up with a girl and was like, 'I like this a lot more.' It felt better. It felt right." RELATED VIDEO: Demi Lovato: It Feels Great to Live In My Truth Fearlessly In contrast, "Some of the guys I was hanging out with — when it would come time to be sexual or intimate, I would have this kind of visceral reaction. Like, 'I just don't want to put my mouth there.' " "It wasn't even based on the person it was with. I just found myself really appreciating the friendships of those people more than the romance, and I didn't want the romance from anybody of the opposite sex," Lovato said.