Demi Lovato Says 'Aliens Is a Derogatory Term' for Extraterrestrials

Demi Lovato wants to change the way we think about extraterrestrials and even how we refer to them. In a new interview about their Peacock series Unidentified With Demi Lovato, the singer said beings from another world should not be referred to as "aliens" because that could be a "derogatory term." The new series debuted on Sept. 30 and co-stars Lovato's sister Dallas Lovato and their friend Matthew Montgomery as they search for evidence of life beyond our atmosphere.

While chatting with Pedestrian.tv, Lovato was asked if there were any misconceptions about unidentified flying objects that they would like to change. "I think the ones that bother me are that they're harmful or that they'll come and take over the planet," Lovato explained. "I really think that if there was anything out there that would want to do that to us, it would have happened by now. But I think that we have to stop calling them aliens because aliens is a derogatory term for anything. That's why I like to call them ETs! So yeah, that's a little tidbit. A little information that I learned."

Lovato is correct that some consider "alien" a derogatory term, but that is usually when it is used to refer to people who are not a citizen of the country they live in. Back in September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law to remove the word "alien" from its laws and will replace it with terms like "noncitizen" and "immigrant." President Joe Biden has also asked federal immigration agencies to stop calling migrants "aliens," while the Associated Press has advised journalists against using the phrase "illegal alien" since 2013.

Newsom said the word "alien" is "an offensive term for a human being" that has "fueled a divisive and hurtful narrative," reports the Associated Press. "By changing this term, we are ensuring California's laws reflect our state's values," he said. California previously passed laws in 2015 and 2016 to drop the work from labor and education codes.

Elsewhere in their new interview, Lovato said we shouldn't be afraid of extraterrestrials, suggesting that if anyone wanted to do harm to us, they already would have. "I also think that if there are civilizations that are of consciousness in other dimensions, which has given them the technology to be able to travel through space, I think that they are looking for nothing but peaceful encounters and interactions because like I said, if they wanted us gone, we would have been gone a long time ago!" Lovato said.