Drag Race icon explains why she chose to stick with stage name after transitioning

RuPaul’s Drag Race legend Adore Delano has detailed why she chose to keep her stage name as her legal name after coming out as trans back in 2023.

Adore hails from the golden era of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the time when RuPaul herself was still slightly grainy on the TV screen. During season six, which also featured iconic names such as Bianca Del Rio and Courtney Act, Adore stunned as the youngest member of the cast. She returned for All Stars season two, but let’s not talk about that – you know why!

In a recent TikTok video, Adore responded to backlash about her chosen name. According to her, people said it was weird that she legally changed her name to the same one she used as a drag performer.

@itsadoredelano

new names work for people, but i adore delano

♬ original sound – Adore Delano

“Babe, life is what you make it; it’s not my fault that I’m a star and that name is already solidified,” she explained. “I’m entering the acting field. That is the name I receive scripts in, that is the name that I perform with, do you know how many girls keep their stage names as their everyday name?”

Even when it comes to the Drag Race stars who have since come out as trans, many of them choose to keep the names they’ve used on stage for years. Jinx Monsoon, Detox, and Sasha Colby jump immediately to mind.

Adore continued: “I’m fine with it, you don’t have to be. That’s who I get recognised as, it would be so confusing for my psyche for me to create another for, of not identity, but like another name. I was going to keep Danny, but it has such a dysphoric sound to it that it just didn’t match with me.

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“Maybe in the future I’ll change it, but I don’t think I will. Everyone knows me as Adore, it is what it is. It’s got a good ring to it.”

Good for her!

Adore Delano came out as trans in 2023

Adore Delano came out in July 2023 when she told her two million followers how she had kept it secret to get through the earliest stages alone.

“I wanted to let everybody know that I am transitioning, and I kept it really of hush-hush the first three months because I wanted to go through the beginning stages of the puberty privately,” she said. “I’ve found that it’s been very enlightening and has made me probably the happiest I’ve ever been in my adult life.”

Though she had come out to her mother as trans in her youth, she recanted those moments after signing up (and nearly winning) American Idol.

“I suppressed everything. I threw it away. I burned it. I tried to reinvent myself. It’s something that I’m really good at doing as a Scorpio rising, but I reinvented myself into something that was so uncomfortable. It was almost like a sacrifice in order to get what I wanted career-wise,” she added.

Ultimately, transitioning had allowed her to “love my life” again.

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Featured image credit: Adore Delano