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When the world came to a stop during the COVID-19 pandemic, Desi Napoles used the break as a time to reassess. They had been doing drag since age 8, but now well into their teenage years, the persona they’d honed as a child didn’t feel right anymore.
“It wasn’t drag anymore, it was me being me,” they say. “It wasn’t me playing a character, it was me being who I really am, which is a creative person who likes to make stuff and do makeup. That’s what prompted my shift. It wasn't me losing interest, it was me discovering myself — this might not be drag, it might just be me.”
Napoles was previously known as Desmond Is Amazing, the drag name they performed under for many years. Since first hitting the stage, they’ve founded the first drag house for youth, walked the runway at New York Fashion Week, been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ youth, and even met RuPaul at DragCon. And while Napoles says these years as Desmond Is Amazing have been crucial in shaping their identity, they’re moving forward. On the precipice of their 17th birthday, Napoles prefers to be known as Desi, and is focusing on their activism, on graduating from high school, and on expressing themself away from the stage.
While they didn’t officially stop doing drag until 2020, Napoles says they started to rethink it in middle school.
“After I entered middle school, it was like, I may not be doing drag. Then I found the term gender fluid and it really stuck with me,” they say. “That’s how I ended up identifying.”
For example, Napoles stopped wearing wigs because they actually wanted long hair. Their drag persona was no longer a costume, but a reflection of who they wanted to be as a person. And though they aren’t performing anymore, Napoles says they credit drag with helping them understand their identity. “I was able to discover that earlier [because of drag] and because I have supportive parents,” they say.
Napoles has long been an outspoken advocate, but better understanding their identity has spurred them to focus fully on activism, and the timing couldn’t be more apt. According to the Trans Legislation Tracker, there were 80 anti-trans bills proposed in 2020, when Napoles quit drag. That number ballooned in the ensuing years with 602 bills proposed in 2023, and 587 so far this year. Some of those bills are “drag bans,” which aim to restrict or stop drag performances, particularly in the case of minors. Tennessee had banned drag shows in public or in spaces where minors could see them, but a federal judge struck down the ban as unconstitutional in June 2023 (this decision has been appealed and is still pending).
While these bans attempt to keep kids from drag, Napoles points out that drag is an art form — like all art, some drag might be inappropriate for kids, but that doesn’t mean drag is inherently inappropriate. Banning kids from it is the same, they say, as banning kids from painting because some paintings are explicit.
“You can go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the Museum of Modern Art and see paintings that have 18+ stuff. That doesn’t mean young kids can’t paint or do art,” Napoles says. “It’s based on how you express yourself within that art.”
Napoles continues, firmly striking down the idea that drag queens are trying to prey on kids — an idea that’s been perpetuated amid the increase in drag bans.
“Spreading these false narratives about drag is harmful to people who want to experiment in drag. It’s extremely harmful,” they say. “[Drag bans] aren't trying to protect children, they're trying to eliminate art forms that the queer community uses to express themselves. I feel like drag has led to a more accepting space for LGBTQ people. Because they want to ban that, they're trying to reverse that acceptance.”
So even though they’ve stepped off the stage, Napoles won’t stop speaking out or being visible — they know that, just by way of being themselves, they’re helping expand acceptance. They say they have fans young and old who admire them for being so authentically themself at such a young age. Of course, drag remains close to their heart, it’s just that they practice it a little differently these days.
“I love the 2000s style. I see a lot of people wearing it today, but I like the ugly 2000s style — jeans over skirts, several tank tops, that’s my type of 2000s fashion. I wake up at 5 a.m. to do 2000s makeup for school. It’s my form of drag at this point,” Napoles says, naming Paris Hilton as their style icon. “It’s a fun way to dress. You see people with this clean girl aesthetic and it’s like, why so plain? Why not have the pattern and the colors?”
