diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b3f0df662cad..8656e8929563 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ Ref: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/
 * (x/authz) [#12184](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/12184) Fix MsgExec not verifying the validity of nested messages.
 * (x/crisis) [#12208](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/12208) Fix progress index of crisis invariant assertion logs.
 * (types) [#12229](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/12229) Increase sdk.Dec maxApproxRootIterations to 300
+* (x/staking) [#12303](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/12303) Use bytes instead of string comparison in delete validator queue
 
 ## [v0.46.0-rc1](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/releases/tag/v0.46.0-rc1) - 2022-05-23
 
diff --git a/x/staking/keeper/validator.go b/x/staking/keeper/validator.go
index 556280575e86..2a55ef43e571 100644
--- a/x/staking/keeper/validator.go
+++ b/x/staking/keeper/validator.go
@@ -380,9 +380,21 @@ func (k Keeper) DeleteValidatorQueue(ctx sdk.Context, val types.Validator) {
 	addrs := k.GetUnbondingValidators(ctx, val.UnbondingTime, val.UnbondingHeight)
 	newAddrs := []string{}
 
+	// since address string may change due to Bech32 prefix change, we parse the addresses into bytes
+	// format for normalization
+	deletingAddr, err := sdk.ValAddressFromBech32(val.OperatorAddress)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(err)
+	}
+
 	for _, addr := range addrs {
-		if addr != val.OperatorAddress {
-			newAddrs = append(newAddrs, addr)
+		storedAddr, err := sdk.ValAddressFromBech32(addr)
+		if err != nil {
+			// even if we don't panic here, it will panic in UnbondAllMatureValidators at unbond time
+			panic(err)
+		}
+		if !storedAddr.Equals(deletingAddr) {
+			newAddrs = append(newAddrs, storedAddr.String())
 		}
 	}