ConDRAGulations to RuPaul's Drag Race alum and We're Here co-star Eureka O' Hara, who has come out as transgender.
via People:
"I'm blessed now," Eureka, 31, tells PEOPLE exclusively, "because I know who I am without question."
It was because of her HBO show We're Here — on which she and fellow drag superstars Shangela and Bob the Drag Queen visit small-town America — that she decided to transition in the first place. And seven months after she made the decision to transition, Eureka is proud to share her story publicly for the first time.
"It's been really magical and it's been probably the easiest transitional and coming out journey that I've ever been on," she says. "I hope my story teaches people that gender is a journey, and we are ever-evolving people."
While filming the next two episodes of We're Here in Florida this spring, Eureka met two trans individuals (Mandy, who transitioned later in life, and Dempsey, a young trans girl) who inspired her to reexamine her identity.
"Hearing the story of Mandy regretting losing all that time — and all the regret and the pain that she was going through during the time of not fully being herself — was really important to me. When I left Mandy's house that day, I started spiraling. It just had me searching my mind, 'What is happening, what is going on?' Then I just answered myself: 'I'm trans. I'm a trans woman.' It just clicked," Eureka says.
She adds, "Now I'm at 31 years old, and I'm like, 'Well I don't want to be like Mandy and finally transition at 70 to be happy. I don't want to lose 40 years — I want to spend those 40 years happy.'"
In the early days of her transition, Eureka had a strong support system in place, including her drag mother Jacqueline St. James and her We're Here "sisters," Shangela and Bob.
And Eureka felt empowered to share her story — and take back her own narrative — on the show, as she has had several coming-out moments in her life. Ahead of this transition, Eureka previously identified as a gay cisgender man, then lived as a transgender woman from ages 18 to 22 before eventually identifying as non-binary.
"I wanted to have the opportunity to tell the story with the show, because I was so impacted by Mandy. It was like I got to decide for the first time ever in my life how I came out, 'cause I never had that experience before," says Eureka. "I was always called gay before I ever even knew what gay was; when I wanted to transition before, I was told by the other people in my life and trans people that I was trans before I really understood what it was. This time it was like, I get to do it my way."
Eureka's gender journey began when she was a child.
"From as young as I can remember, I just remember going to sleep, and I would cry and pray to wake up a girl," Eureka recalls.
The star has spent years contemplating her identity before finally transitioning this year.
"The problem in the past has been, there was always a question in the back of my mind: 'Is this really who I am?' And 'Did I give myself a chance as a young gay male?' was the question that I had from 18 to 22, because that was a lot of my parents' questions and therapists' questions, and a lot of people's opinions," Eureka says.
Before embracing her trans identity, Eureka says she found solace in the drag community and onstage.
"Drag's been so important to me because that's where I was able to be a woman for so long. And it has just been a safe place for me to get to know myself," says Eureka, who rose to fame on seasons 9 and 10 of Drag Race before appearing on RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars last year. "It also taught me how to be confident, because the confidence that I learned in drag I was able to eventually start using in my everyday life."
Eureka says living as a non-binary person also helped her on her journey.
"I found contentment there for a while, but there was always been something missing," she says. "It's like I've been searching for something. I realized that it was me not allowing myself to be the woman that I am, out of fear."
Definitely proud of Eureka for finally finding the courage to live in her truth. To read the full People article, click on the link I posted up top.
In the mea time, check out her video for Big Mawma, directed by Assaad Yacoub below...
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