RuPaul’s Drag Race finalist and American Idol contestant Adore Delano has publicly come out as transgender in an emotional video.
The 33-year-old shared a clip to Instagram on 26 July chronicling her gender journey.
“I wanted to let everybody know that I am transitioning and I kept it really, kind of hush-hush the first three months because I wanted to go through the beginning stages of the puberty privately,” she explained, adding: “I’ve found that it’s been very enlightening and has made me probably the happiest I’ve ever been in my adult life.”
Adore then told fans of her journey from “dysphoria to euphoria” and shared that she first came out as trans to her mother when she as in secondary school.
She also stated that appearing on the seventh season of American Idol 15 years ago made her want to “suppress everything” she knew about her trans identity.
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“I threw it away, I burned it,” she said in the video. “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.”
Following her elimination on American Idol, she was “more femme-presenting” before going on to compete in the sixth season of Drag Race, where she finished as a runner-up.
Adore later went on to star in All Stars 2, which she quit in the second episode.
READ MORE: Drag Race star Adore Delano would return to All Stars on one condition
“I’m living in my world now, and it feels so empowering, and it feels so good,” she told fans in her video. “It feels so liberating.”
She also confirmed her plans to have surgery in November before taking a few months off at the start of 2024 for further surgeries.
“I am transgender,” Adore added. “I’m going by she/her. They still feels a little cute, but she/her just feels yummy on this cupcake.”
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