--- title: Eureka O’Hara: Drag Is an Expression of Queer Existence description: Drag queen Eureka O'Hara on growing up in East Tennessee, the proposed drag bans, and finding beauty and resilience amid the hardships. canonical: https://time.com/6269555/drag-queer-existence-eureka-ohara-tennessee/ author: Eureka O’Hara article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-04-10T11:00:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:17.348Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Eureka O’Hara: Drag Is an Expression of Queer Existence og:description: Drag queen Eureka O'Hara on growing up in East Tennessee, the proposed drag bans, and finding beauty amid the hardships. og:url: https://time.com/6269555/drag-queer-existence-eureka-ohara-tennessee/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16a6edbe8ee01a30/698a3b8222fb850200e2e879/eureka-ohara-drag-queen-tennessee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: "Ru Paul's Drag Race All Stars" at the Empire State Building og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Eureka O’Hara: Drag Is an Expression of Queer Existence twitter:description: Drag queen Eureka O'Hara on growing up in East Tennessee, the proposed drag bans, and finding beauty amid the hardships. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt16a6edbe8ee01a30/698a3b8222fb850200e2e879/eureka-ohara-drag-queen-tennessee.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- # Drag Is an Expression of Queer Existence > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: The History You Didn't Learn: Sir Lady Java [Watch (HLS stream): The History You Didn't Learn: Sir Lady Java](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aOEe7MU1.m3u8) (6:47)  _Published 2021-06-22. Today, you can turn on the TV and watch hours of drag performances. But it was not too long ago that a trans woman and drag queen could perform as her true self._ Apr 10, 2023 11:00 AM UTC  Eureka O'Hara in NYC, on June 24, 2021. Eureka O'Hara in NYC, on June 24, 2021. Mark Peterson—Redux by [Eureka O’Hara](https://time.com/author/eureka-ohara/) ## Eureka O’Hara Apr 10, 2023 11:00 AM UTC “I really want us to go to this bar called New Beginnings,” my high school friend, Kay, said to me one day. I was 16 years old growing up in Bristol, Tennessee in the early aughts, and truth be told, I didn’t realize it was a gay bar until we were almost at the venue. I freaked out, but looking back on it now, I was very lucky. It was the first time I saw queer people just being themselves. Until then, I only ever really saw a couple of gay guys at school, or maybe one that I had worked with previously, and they were consistently bullied. And I certainly didn’t want that. After we showed our fake IDs and made our way into the bar, I sat down in the corner. “What’s wrong?,” Kay asked. “Nothing. I just want to check it out,” I said nervously. Kay and I had previously had conversations circling around me being gay—those awkward conversations you tend to have when you’re young—but never got too deep about it. Now, here we were, in this gay bar, and I was terrified. Suddenly, I heard a super flamboyant, loud voice coming over the speaker: “Welcome to the stage the amazing Jacqueline St. James”—and this big, beautiful woman with a high, brown ponytail, so much makeup, and big boobs walks out. As soon as she peeled the corner, she flung her giant coat, and the whole room filled with the smell of her Bob Mackie perfume. She stepped out on the stage, and as soon as the light hit her, I was just like, “What is that?” There was something so powerful about the confidence she had— the beauty and glamour. I never felt so seen and so safe to be myself. I thought, “If this person can do all of that, then I’m okay being me.” It was an overwhelming idea. In fact, Jacqueline later came out as trans and became my drag mother, as I began to do drag (and later, when I came out as trans myself). Drag queens, after all, have a way of [sticking together.](https://time.com/6265333/drag-queen-political-act/) --- ### More from TIME --- **_Read More:_**[_A Weekend With a Memphis Drag Queen as Tennessee Tries to Restrict Her Art_](https://time.com/6267222/tennessee-drag-law-performers-keleigh-klarke-profile/) I grew up in a household with many women (my mother, my two sisters, and my grandmother), and from a very early age, I always felt different from the men in my family. I was hyper feminine but was taught to be ashamed of my femininity. I swished, sashayed, and was sassy before I even knew that that’s what I was doing. Above all, I loved glamour, and always looked to my mother for inspiration. She was my saving grace. Being a single mother, she worked 12-hours days, seven days a week sometimes, at a factory job. But when it was time for her to go out, she was very glamorous. My mother had very curly, poofy 80s hair, eye liner, and did glamour shots. And because we didn’t have a whole lot growing up, I loved all of that. I just loved how pretty it all was—how shiny, rich, and important. The only thing I didn’t understand is why everyone else _didn’t_ want to be as pretty as I wanted to be. After seeing Jacqueline perform, I started going out and transforming into a little queer kid. I was hanging out with all the drag queens at New Beginnings and was immediately backstage. I would take queens to their gigs and help them dress. If they wanted a ride to their next job and it was an hour away, I didn’t care. I needed to be as close to this as humanly possible. When I was about 17, I expressed the interest in doing drag myself and Serena Nox, a queen from East Tennessee, offered to do my makeup and give me a little cocktail dress for my first show. I paid her $50 to do my makeup, and even though I wore a size 14-inch heel at the time, I found size 12 slingbacks and taped them with metallic silver duct tape from my feet all the way up to my thighs. It was like I had silver metallic boots on, but my heel was in the middle of my foot. I felt gorgeous. I felt fierce, and you couldn’t tell me I wasn’t everything. It was almost like I had this artistic mask on and felt so brave, talking to people in a way I never knew I really could and being celebrated by everyone around me. I was obsessed; I just kept begging Serena to do it again, and after a while, she agreed to put me in her talent show. I was so nervous. I walked out into the middle of the stage with a purse on my arm and stood in one spot and barely lip-synced. Even still, the whole crowd cheered so loudly saying, “You got it, Eureka!” I had never felt this way in my life. I had never felt so loved by the people around me. That was the first time I realized that I was a likable person— that people actually liked me for me. It’s so important to feel seen and supported when you’re young and coming to terms with yourself. I speak from personal experience: I was so insecure with who I was because I just didn’t have anyone like me growing up. I always felt so traumatized by my existence because I was being taught, weekly, in church that I was going to burn in hell. The fear of that—on top of the people like my father, my uncles, my cousins, even my sister treating me like there’s something wrong with me—was very scarring. As much as I was lucky to find a place to express myself that early, that trauma stuck with me. I didn’t really know what it was then, but I felt I could have avoided it if there would have been more visibility or more people that I could have looked up to. That’s why the proposed [ban on public drag](https://time.com/6260421/tennessee-limiting-drag-shows-status-of-anti-drag-bills-u-s/) in Tennessee breaks my heart so much. When I first heard that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was signing the bill, I got so emotional that I cried. I thought back to the time when I went to my first Pride event in Roanoke, Virginia. There was outdoor drag—in public, out in the light, not just in this gay bar I was sneaking to in high school every night. I was performing at it too, and it was just so celebratory. Those events and moments are so important, especially for queer youth, because where else are they going to safely and legally experience the therapy and the beauty of seeing their community thriving in all their glory. Queer youth need to see that they’re [not alone](https://time.com/6173081/suicidal-thoughts-lgbtq-youth/), but often, don’t have anywhere to be in community with each other, or even spend time with their allies that are showing them that diversity exists. What’s even worse is that the parental decision to show the richness of queer culture is being taken away, too. Politicians like Lee are so busy demonizing and sexualizing our existence that they also instill fear in people that are actually trying to figure themselves out. It’s a scare tactic that is meant to erase us, not keep us safe. Drag is not meant to be serious. But the false accusations of harm done to children and the blatant disregard for who we are _is_ very serious. That’s why we do drag—it’s an expression and a statement of our existence. It serves as a constant reminder that, in spite of the old morality codes that tell us what we can’t be and the hardships that we have gone through for self-determination, we can still celebrate what makes us beautiful. That’s where the power lies. – _A_ _s told to Rachel Sonis_ ## Transcript It felt great stage for people that you don't know, and for them to like what you did, it makes you feel good inside. I just love the people involved with the game. Today, you can turn on the TV and watch hours of Drive performances, but it was not too long ago that a trans woman and drag queen had to fight the law just so she could perform as her true self. By Lady Java is a black woman. She was a comedian, a dancer, a performer, Nevermind. The mirror. I was a dancer and I love them. They can see it in my face and I were little bitty skin. It was so little. And for those days that was the littlest bikinis without the 60s or lady Java Rose to prominence in the LA nightlife scene and as a result of begin to be tracked by the Los Angeles. Police Department for violating Rule Number 9, which prohibited nightlife venues from employing performers who performed as the opposite gender to the one that they were assigned at Birth. Not only was at discriminatory, on its face, but it was also applied in a discriminatory manner because there were a number of fires that future fight entertainers and cater to a mostly white or mixed audience that were allowed to perform. But in Black Clubs catering to mostly black audiences with black performers. It's like that's where the enforcement of rule, nine seems to have taken place. And so, on October 19th, Southern this surveillance of her reach. Has a fever pitch when she's playing a series of shows at the red fox, a black owned bar, on the West Side, despite applying for a permit, to be able to employ Jabba, that permit was denied. And so the Redbox received an injunction for continuing to employ Java. And so he didn't renew her contract, and she was saying, like, why? Like, this is just straight up employment discrimination, is like, this is just who I am. It's just like, I'm an Entertainer who happens to be trans. I'm not doing anything on stage that I'm not doing offstage. And that became the basis of our very successful protest. Java responded by working with the ACLU, to try to overturn will number nine, California, state supreme court. Ultimately decided that the Entertainer did not have standing to Sue that it was the club owner who has standing to sue while the court won't hear the lawsuit because the ACLU could not find. A bar owner who wanted to be the named plaintiff Java continues to fight against and flout Rule. Number 9, by testing the fresh called a properly gender. The tire at the time in order to be considered properly, attired in the eyes of the police, you had to be wearing at least three articles of clothing of the gender you are signed up first. Can you imagine coming out in a sequined gown with a bikini underneath, wearing a men's wrist, watch a men's bow, tie and socks. I just see this as an example of like black queer and trans like Ingenuity and it was billion. The significance of Lady Jabba's court case, even though It in and of itself wasn't successful, it laid the groundwork for a successful challenges of employment discrimination. And I think this is really important for today cuz I think of you know this was an unprecedented the year for the passage of bills and laws that Target transgender people a record. Number of Bill to limit transgender rights and gender athlete bands introduced in 31 States and care for Trans youth do exactly the same thing. They target trans people but they aren't the subject of the law. Write the law is for the doctor. The position is prohibited from the parents will be held responsible, if I feel like this is another way that life Java story in the unfinished business of it has a lot to do with what we're facing today. From the bike, The Unfinished work around trans people's right to live to exist, that drag and processing and gender expression was police literally police by the police, as heavily as it was back in the day. Because these days we see that drag as an expression that has a performance even for something as an as an identity is celebrated. And that's really because of mainstream this tender heterosexual White. Call Charles has figured out how to sell it and make money off of it. Historically, no one important piece of rag, for some Beyond being a cool. BRB on being an artistic expression, can be the only way that they can access, the gender expression that they desperately need. I know that, that was what it was for me. I'm in a time when I wasn't going to be celebrated for being trans where I wasn't going to be celebrated for sort of quote Living my truth. I knew that I could at least get some Applause and maybe even some money just putting on a wig and strutting my stuff, the way that I wanted to something. It keeps binding you down, it would leave so you can be you and being you Houston, Bush Airport. 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