Zoreaux, Van Damme & social names

I’m watching s03ep04 for the second time and something just hit me, which I haven’t seen mentioned in here.

At first I didn’t get the reason for having a plot where Zoreaux changes his name to Van Damme, it sounded silly, but I notice that immediately after he announces the change, no one has the slightest difficulty in calling him by Van Damme. Even the two guys that narrate the match… it’s an instant change.

I felt stupid for not relating this plot (was it obvious?) with the queer community before. It’s kinda of a nice touch having this subtle but effective message for the whole “you can be whoever you want to be” and showing that it takes no effort at all to do the same to trans/non-binary people out there, mostly in the “”””small””” things like fucking calling someone by their actual name and not the one they were born with.