Heidi N Closet reveals if she’s actually going to change her drag name
Heidi N Closet will not be changing her drag name, thank you very much.
The drag queen, who was crowned Miss Congeniality on the recently-wrapped 12th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” was urged to switch up her chosen name by RuPaul throughout the season, with the host trying out a variety of short-lived alterations to see if any of them stuck: Heidi Ho, Heidi N Seeky and, perhaps the most serious contender for her new name, Heidi Afrodite.
By the end of the season, though, it was unclear whether or not the North Carolina native had officially changed her name, but during a recent interview with In The Know’s Gibson Johns promoting her Pride partnership with Skyy Vodka, Heidi revealed that she wouldn’t be changing a thing.
“Yes. Yes, I have. I have officially stuck with it,” she told ITK. “My fans, they deem themselves ‘Closet Cases,’ and that wouldn’t make sense if I was to change my name. So, I kind of have to stick with it!”
“I mean, it’s been my name for five years and some change now,” Heidi added. “So it would be hard to drastically change it that fast. But, also, it helps that the fans really enjoy it.”
The fan-favorite also joked that she wants to “take the closet back” by maintaining her chosen drag name.
As for being voted on by her competitors as her season’s Miss Congeniality, Heidi said that it felt “amazing” to receive the honor and it reflected a shift in how she’s perceived by others.
“It’s so weird because, for many years, I was ridiculed for being who I was and, going into the competition, I wanted to be my most authentic self and I was,” she explained. “And I think they saw that, and I think that’s why they saw the genuine. They saw the personality. They saw all the goodness in me, and I think that’s why they chose me.”
“It just feels amazing to be celebrated for just being me, and I’m so happy to have been part of such an amazing and talented cast, that they and I have made together,” Heidi went on. “And it just feels incredible to have been celebrated that way.”
And it wasn’t just her co-stars that Heidi won over this spring: If it had been up to the fans, it’s likely that she still would’ve won the Miss Congeniality title.
“The day before the episode aired where I got crowned Miss Congeniality, I got tagged so many times, saying, ‘If Heidi N Closet doesn’t win…!'” she laughed. “I was like, ‘Oh, thank y’all so much.’ So it was very sweet seeing so many people support me on that as well.”
Listen to our full interview with Heidi N Closet below:
If you enjoyed this interview, check out In The Know’s recent interview with another fan-favorite drag superstar, Shangela, here.
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