RuPaul’s Drag Race star Eureka O’Hara has opened up about her journey to transitioning after officially coming out as a trans woman.
In an interview with People, the reality TV star described her relief at finding peace after years of struggling with her identity. “I’m blessed now, because I know who I am without question,” she explained. “It’s been really magical and it’s been probably the easiest transitional and coming out journey that I’ve ever been on. I hope my story teaches people that gender is a journey, and we are ever-evolving people.”
Eureka (who uses she/they pronouns), explained that the decision to begin her transition came after meeting some remarkable trans individuals while filming season three of HBO Max’s Emmy award-winning show “We’re Here”. Over the course of the show, Eureka, along with fellow Drag Race superstars Bob the Drag Queen and Shangela, travel to isolated towns in America to put on a one-night-only drag show.
While filming episodes in Florida for season three earlier this year, Eureka met 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,” she recalled. “When I left Mandy’s house that day, I started spiralling. 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, who has competed on three seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race to date and reached the finale twice, added that she felt that now was the right time to transition. “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.”
Eureka previously identified as a gay cisgender man, then lived as a transgender woman from ages 18 to 23, before eventually identifying as non-binary.
Eureka is in the process of changing her gender markers to female, and has already legally changed her name Eureka D. Huggard, a nod to both her drag and birth names. She has also been on hormone replacement therapy for seven months and is considering facial feminization surgery and breast augmentation.
“It’s hard being a woman — that’s the truth! It’s even harder being a trans woman because you have to put in 10 times more effort to present female. It doesn’t come as naturally,” she said.
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