RuPaul's Drag Race star Adore Delano comes out as trans

27 July 2023, 11:08

Adore Delano comes out as trans

By Sam Prance

"I'm living in my world now, and it feels so empowering, and it feels so good. It feels so liberating."

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Adore Delano, who first rose to fame on American Idol season 7 and RuPaul's Drag Race season 6, has come out as trans.

Taking to Instagram and TikTok yesterday (Jul 26), Adore posted a 10-minute video captioned: "It’s time we have 'the talk'". In the video, Adore said: "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."

Adore then explained that being sober for the past two years has helped her figure out who she really is. 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."

Drag Race icon Adore Delano comes out as trans. Picture: Santiago Felipe/FilmMagic, @adoredelano via Instagram

In the video, Adore revealed that she initially came out to her mother as trans when she was in high school. However, she felt the need to "suppress everything" to compete on American Idol.

Adore stated: "I threw it away, I burned it. I reinvented myself into something that was so uncomfortable. It was almost like a sacrifice in order to get what I wanted career-wise. It made sense to me at the time, as a 16-year-old, and then I got on the show, and that carried on in the story on Drag Race."

Adore explained that embracing drag helped her gradually become more comfortable with her gender-identity again. She said: "I'm living in my world now, and it feels so empowering, and it feels so good. It feels so liberating."

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A post shared by Adore Delano (@adoredelano)

Adore added that she is now taking some time off in the future at the start of 2024 for "some major surgeries" and will also be getting surgery later this year. She said: "I'm going to be having surgery in November, so I'm probably going to look a little different."

Adore ended the video by clarifying her pronouns. She said: "I am transgender. I'm going by she/her. They still feels a little cute, but she/her just feels yummy on this cupcake."

Congratulations Adore!