December 14, 2022 • 45 mins
Jonathan and Jaymes are thrilled to be joined today by Eureka who is coming to them live from the set of RuPaul’s Drag Race in Vegas!
They discuss the power of ‘We’re Here,’ share their journey from Tennessee to today and celebrate sobriety. There’s so much joy to be had in the pod today!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Pridecast with Jonathan Bennett, James v on I
Heart Radio. Hello. Hello, Hello everybody, it's John in the Minute.
Welcome to a new episode of podcast on I Heart Radio.
I'm joined by James Vaughan, my husband. Hello, baby, that's
all I get this week. Wait a minute. Okay, my
(00:25):
hot honky happy I married him sometimes husband, James Vaughan, Baby,
you're in the car doing this episode. I'm at the
Pridecast studio, which really is just our our second test bedroom.
So don't everyone when you see us, like with the
big wall, I just want to pull the the rope
(00:46):
away and let everyone know it's just our guest bedroom.
You can see the light switch, It's okay, it's okay.
And James had had an anxiety attack about that light
switch that if people were to see it, they would
know that we were in our bedroom. So aesthetically, I
don't like the look of it. I want the aesthetic
to be consistent. It's our bedroom, baby, they know that.
(01:07):
I just like a nice, cleanthetic gay and me needs
symmetry and needs a clean aesthetic. Everything to be Jonathan David,
oh my gosh, you were such a child. Can we
talk about why I'm doing this pridcast with you. Hang on,
I'm in the car right now doing podcast as my
baby is in the air quote studio. Because Eureka is
(01:29):
our guest today and she went my all time, all time,
all time favorite queens and John, I'm like, I'll just
do podcasts about you. I know you're busy today. You
gotta shoot going on. I'm like, oh no, no, no,
no, no no no. I will park the car outside the
shoot and I will set up. So now I'm sitting
in the car. The A c's off, so it'll it'll
not be um, you know, not make noise. But unfortunately,
now I'm sweating profusely because the a CS off. But
(01:49):
I'm getting this prodcast done because I did not want
to miss this opportunity to talk to Eureka. So now
we can talk about Christmas. Baby, let's get me. I
can't tell you because that will spoil the surpris. Okay,
let's just tell everyone, are honest truth about what we
do for gifts. Guys, listen to your uncle James and Jonathan. Okay,
here's our key to Christmas gift giving. Ready. The key
(02:11):
to Christmas gift giving is we don't do it and
let me tell you why, because it's too stressful. So
I understand there's the joy of giving. But what James
and I have done as decided, what if we just
never gave each other gifts? How nice that would be
because every time we're together it's a gift. Oh my god,
(02:31):
that's so cute. Every time we're together it's a gift.
And so we just years ago made a decision that
we never trade Christmas gifts. So there's no shopping that
has to be done, there's no stress. We just like
lay around and like do nothing on Christmas and it's
so much fun. So what do I do with the
gift that I got you this year? Didn't give me one?
I know you didn't, um let me make sure I
(02:54):
got the receipts. Still, first of all, I just want
to make sure we were still doing that. So I
had to set up to be like, wait, we are
still doing the no gift things, right? We do know
because we do live a very very fortunate life, my love.
We're so fortunate, and the most fortunate thing that we
have is that we found each other. And so there's
not really anything that I need beyond that except deodorant sometimes,
(03:15):
but that's another story. But I'll get you that. But
here's the thing. The thing is, if you are stressed
about what you want to get your partner this this
holiday season, why don't you ask your partner be like, hey,
I haven't gotten your gift yet, have you gotten mine yet?
And if they say no, but like, what if we
just didn't do gifts this year? Because I bet you
your partner is thinking the same thing of like, dang it,
I don't want to have the stress of this either
because it stresses me out. So hey, you know what,
(03:37):
tell him Uncle James and Johnny sent you and they
he and they said, don't do gifts. But do you
remember the very first Christmas President I did ever give you? Yes,
it was an Apple Watch. No, it was not the
very first present I ever gave you was telling you
I love the very first present he ever gave me.
Forget that that said I love you, I love you,
(03:58):
I love you, I love you. So I was said
I loved you, and that's how you told me love me.
But I have my Apple watch that I wear now
to this day. And oh well, Le'm gonna look at
the time. You know what time? It is. It's time
to bring on Eureka. Ya. We are so excited to
have on Pridecast one of my favorite queens, but not
just a queen, a legend doing the most good for
(04:20):
the lgbt Q plus community. It's the one and only Eureka. Ohharra,
well you found it. Oh we found you. Wait, I
want to do the because I've been singing this all day.
I want, hey, big surprise you're here. I've been listening
to your song on repeat in the car for the
(04:41):
past hour because I was like, wait, I haven't heard
eurekas song yet, and I put it on and you know,
when you really like the songs, you just haven't repeat
over and over. So that's what I've been doing. So
it is in my head. Fresh, thank you. I'm gonna
get off this podcast and put it back on again.
Just f y. It's so good, baby, it's You're gonna
love it. James is and car right everybody, So he's
trying to make it work. Yeah, okay, James is in
(05:03):
the car. He's trying to make it work. His audios crap.
But you know what, we love him anyway because we gotta.
He's he didn't pay for that updated WiFi signal. You know,
he was trying to save a buck, so he went
with just the good old fashioned dial up internet in
the car. I'm recording audio from here, so I'll have
good audio here. Don't worry. We can make Okay, we can.
You can understand me. We're good, Okay, we can make it.
(05:25):
I wasn't gonna miss Eureka's episode, so I couldn't get
there to be in the studio with you. So I
pulled the car over on the side of the road
and I'm doing broadcast from from from a safe spot.
We were parked safely in the parking lot. But I'm
doing proadcast from the car. Okay. So now, Eureka, where
are you right now? So I'm in Vegas. Tonight is
my first night back for the Drag Race Live show.
(05:46):
I'll be here off them. So I'm doing that, you know,
just because I wanted to settle moment and I wanted
to be able to like do all the press and
show up to everything I needed tooper We're here while
it's airing and streaming, so you know, and I at
the end of the year is always kind is slow
and it's family times. I was like girl put a
big bitch up on the stage with a back piece
on it. It really is. And that show, I think
(06:08):
we've seen it ten times and it never gets old.
It's just so much fun every time. What's some of
your favorite parts about performing in that specific theater, Like
there's something magical about it if you asked me. Yeah,
I mean my favorite part is just being able to
wear my clothes and not have to worry about like
duck them through doorways or like walking through a puddle
of alcohol or you know, that's probably my most favorite part.
(06:31):
My others just working with the girls. You know, you
don't get to work with the girls very often unless
you're touring or doing something like this, So it's just
like the camaraderie is really fun um And I especially
love the mirror song. I think it's such a sweet
moment for all the girls, and like the song's cute
and I don't know, I'm a snappy match, so you
are wait this is me? Is your number in the show? Right? Yeah?
(06:56):
Because we saw Cocoa do it, which was amazing because
you know, miss Coco, she's a precision lip singer. But
I've got to get back because I got to see
Eureka do it because I can't. I will be a mess.
I will be speaking, are going to be a sappy
I'll be sappy. One that I did create, the numb
wearing my costume was everything it is not. She created
the number. Actually there's a story behind that because they
(07:19):
had this other like flyaway skirt that was made out
of like this parachute material. And I literally looked at
Randovos and I was like, I love you. But now
also that's how I tell anyone that I don't like something.
I always start with like I love you, but I
love you, but now you know, oh my gosh. So
I called Marco Marco and literally twenty four hours later
(07:41):
him and his team like produced this amazing skirt that
tears off the stage, that covers the entire stage. So
it's it's iconic. Yeah, I don't want to get too
much of it away, but there's a big reveal when
that happens too, which is really really fantastic part of
that number. So we are coming back to Vegas to
see you in that for sure, because I'm not gonna
miss him about all time favorites perform on that stage.
(08:03):
That's so sweet. James I love you, but I'm gonna
start saying that a lot. But we need to talk
about we Are Here? Is what when you talk about that?
It's out now on HBO. Yes, season three of We're Here.
That's amazing to see that, like this show that started
in the pandemic has now turned into this truly a
(08:25):
global phenomenon. Can you believe it? Is it? Like? Is
it real to you yet? Yeah? I mean, of course
I believe a girl. You know, my first question nominated shopping.
I'm getting um now. But it's it's I guess it
is hard to believe sometimes, but it's just an incredible show.
I just I'm so blessed that it's getting out there
because it's so educational but also uplifting and really important
(08:48):
now more than ever, with all the issues that we're
having politically, all the issues that we're having socially with
equality and things. It just shines light on real stories
that people can relate to. Do you think, actually, what
what do you think if We're Here had come to
Baby Eureka in your hometown? Where do you think that
experience would have been like for you? And what do
(09:10):
you think that would have changed for you? In your
growth and to who you are now. Yeah, you know, um,
I think it would have definitely like just seeing people
growing up would have been nice, not uh made out
to be a forest right Like, I mean, you know,
the closest thing I ever saw it, like trans People
was like Mari Povitch is a man or a woman
and how toxic is that? You know? But I was
(09:32):
extremely intrigued and wanted to watch it, you know, um,
because that was the only place I could see people.
And I remember seeing Dina Cass She's a legendary drag
queen on Jerry Springer and it's like, you know, and
so that's where we saw like our community was in
these like really hysteria comic lely driven forest typed um
(09:53):
positions and constantly make fun of in the entertainment industry
on TV shows things like that. So it would have
been amazing to see myself like portrayed on TV in
a positive way. Well, because you're doing that for somebody
right now, which is the cool thing. We always talked
about this on Pridecast is that like we're in this
really cool time in history where we're getting to do
it for our younger selves. So there's somebody that's gonna
(10:14):
miss all those hiccups and all that trauma you went
through just because they're getting to see Eureka on their TVs.
That miss them all, but it will probably a little easier. Yeah. Yeah,
you kind of gotta go through the ship to get
through to the glory of being who you are. You know,
the only way out is through huh. Yeah. So that's
my advice normally to people is like be patient with
(10:35):
the situation to continue learning how to be your authentic self,
because that's when you start attracting people that are like
you or that are truly accepting and loving for who
you are naturally. You know. Yeah, it's so interesting to
what you said about how the only time you saw
people that look like you on screen most of the
time that was like you. They were it was like
(10:57):
a first situation where you know, it was a gimmick
almost to like for people laugh and identify with that
so much because it being a being a gay actor.
Even just like the actors that I would see that
look like what I wanted to be doing, no one
was ever like grounded in reality, you know what I mean,
Like it was it wasn't real. So I really really
(11:19):
that really hits home when you say I I I
identify with that so much. And I think we've come
so far from the shows we watched growing up in
the movies we saw to where we are now, Like
I look at what's on there on TV right now,
it's just amazing. What is amazing. But also the entertainment
industry is still a little you know, developing. I think
(11:42):
it's still pushing the boundaries of equality as far as
like learning how to um. I think also the audience too,
is learning how to accept different people in different roles.
I mean even when I mean not to like ask
you this, but I'm curious. I know you're interviewing me,
but like even you coming out as gay, Like, how
did it affect your acting career? You know, sometimes it
can be very effective. Yeah, Pigeon, Yes, absolutely, And for
(12:08):
me it was there was a I was I was
out to my friends and family, but I wasn't like
out publicly. And it wasn't until I met James and
fell in love and knew this time I want to
be and I was still in the closet like I
I would do. I did TV shows and like press
and big things that were reality based where I still
(12:30):
wouldn't tell anyone that I was gay, And it wasn't
until I met James and fell in love that I realized,
Like I was sitting there and I was like, I
don't want to be the thirty world guy, like closeted
actor that was like a teen heart throb that's still
in the closet trying to chase this like the idea
(12:50):
that if you know or still living in this spear
that if if you come out and everyone knows that
you're gay, you're gonna lose all your jobs. You're never
gonna be a leading man, You're not gonna you're not
gonna get the leads of these shows. Like all those
fears went through you, like if they find out who
you are, they're going to take everything away from you.
And I was so nervous. But then when I fell
in love and was just like at a point, was like,
I don't care if they take it all away from me.
(13:12):
I don't want to be that guy because that's just
I feel that I'm sad for him, like I was
sad for myself. It's like, no, that's not cute. So
I did it and exactly the opposite of what I
thought was gonna happen. Happened. I flourished, and because people
saw me for me. And when people see the real
you and the authentic you, that's when they're attracted to you.
(13:33):
That's when the bookings come in. That's when the jobs
come in. And here I am in the Holiday Sitter
airing on Hallmark Channel where this this Christmas where it's
two gay men that are the leads of a Hallmark
Christmas movie. Like that, that's what a leading man looks like,
you know what I mean? And leading for this movie,
you know, and it changes for every movie. What a
(13:54):
leading man or woman or whatever the leads want to
be can be whatever they want. There are no rules,
and it's so I think it's changing so much, and
it's still not all the way there yet obviously, but
it's I mean, can you imagine like the little sixteen
year old seventeen year old kids that are like figuring
out who they are and they're scared, and they're sitting
(14:15):
in their living rooms with their parents watching these Christmas
movies with their mom and dad or whoever, and this
movie comes on and it's a movie filled with love
and family and it's so heartwarming and funny and they're
just able to see themselves like how less scared they're
going to be that Christmas. It's great, I mean, and
(14:36):
it's it's also just seeing their parents watching a movie
like yes, you know, that's the accepting part. That's the
part part will come to all. I mean, That's what
I'm saying is like I think that we are moving
in a positive direction. And that's another another like pinpoint
on that thing I was saying, like, the more at
them you start being yourself, the more you attract those
people that I want to work with you, that want
(14:58):
to be around you. So interesting. I love to hear that.
You know that you're leading in a movie this Christmas.
I didn't know. I'm sorry, I'll have to watch it.
Sounds so exciting. Don't don't think I'm not going to
d M you to put it on your story my story. Trust.
We need we need those ratings up because there you know,
there's so many people out there that are fighting to
(15:19):
like boycott the you know, boycott the network, don't watch,
so we really need the LGBTQ plus family to rally behind,
you know, so which they will. That's what that's the
problem with with the entertainment industry. It is the audience
that we're fighting, you know. Now, it's not the opportunities,
it's like the audience push back, and that's really where
we're having issues socially, which is being driven by these politicians.
(15:44):
I feel that are you know, one allowing people to
feel comfort and speaking out about their discrimination because they
see someone in a position of power being able to
do it, so then in in validates the and how
they feel in them expressing it. So it's just causing
issues for us. I mean, we just had another tragic
(16:05):
incident in Colorado, Like at what are Colorado springs? At
what point will enough be enough where politicians where someone's
going to take notice that it's affecting us and it's
hurting people that we love and it's killing people, you know.
But it's also like pushing people to do really intense
and violent things. It's just wild to me. It's truly sad,
(16:28):
and it all comes from ignorance when you get to
the root of it. It's just ignorance as people not
expanding the horizons and learning that just because somebody doesn't
look like you, or talk like you, or act like you,
doesn't mean that you shouldn't get to know them like
I think that's when we The people that are the
most unlike me are kind of the people I love
having around the most. Those are people that feel like
I learned the most from And it's so sad that,
(16:50):
like I think, us as queer people, we figure that
out pretty soon, but it seems like these other people
that aren't as fabulous as us don't get to figure
that out so quick. And it's it's just sad because
it does just create division and and a lot of
negative outcomes. So thank you for speaking out on that. Eureka.
I see that you're doing in a lot of places
that it's not just here. But I've been reading a
lot of your interviews. I keep up. I am a fan,
(17:12):
and so I see all the stuff you say. It's
always so good those interviews though, Eureka, Um, there was
one I think it was in I read it. It
was in them, um where you told a little bit
of your backstory. And I think us sharing our stories
is so important because there's somebody that will always identify
with a part of your story and it will help
(17:34):
them to hopefully do it better right to do it?
Do it? Uh? Are differently, but hopefully better. I say
better than mine. I say, let me be your cautionary tale.
Don't make my mistakes. Let me tell you about them. Um,
when you talk about the time you when you were
in Tennessee, uh earlier on, what was that time like
for you? Because that really touched me to read that
part of your interview. I mean it was hard, you know,
(17:55):
it was very um negative, it was scary, it was traumatizing,
it was abusive, you know. Um. I lived as an
open trans person, trans woman for four years there. I
went to college. You know, I went through a lot
of really horrible things to where it put me in
a fearful place where I de transitioned, I like retransitioned
(18:16):
to give myself this like opportunity to be a queer man.
And then I got on drag race. I moved to
l A. I found non binary, you know, so that's
when I finally started exploring this comfort of like gender
gray area and kind of came content with like non binary. Um.
But yeah, I mean it was just hard. You know.
(18:37):
Sitnessee was a rough place to grow up. My family was,
you know, well my dad's side of the family, because
my mother's side of family still in Germany, so I
didn't really connect with them very much because they're in
another country. But my dad's side of family is like
low income, like ones out to say, like what you
experienced for picture white trailer trash to look like is
my dad's family whom it can be the most judgmental people. Um,
(19:01):
you know, so it just wasn't pleasant, you know, But
I had my mother and my grandmother luckily. You know.
My school was hard. You know, you have to like
learn to pretend to be someone you're not to survive,
you know, you learn a lot of survival tactic. Um.
I had to, you know, do a lot of things
I'm not proud of. You know. I was pushed into
sex work as a transperson because I couldn't keep a
(19:22):
job because my legal name. You know. It's just a
lot of things that happened. But I grew from it,
you know, and I found peace moving away from it,
you know, which is what randomly we tried to help
with and we're here, is like why do we have
to always run away from where we're from or the
places that we grow up? You know, even though we
might love those areas, you know, it still becomes easier
(19:44):
for us to run to these bigger cities where we
have at least a little nest of of public love
and acceptance was born. And so anyway, that's another part
of it. I mean, I can go on and on,
but I you know, I don't like to talk too
much about that part of my life because I did
to over comment. But what what I did the lesson here? Yeah?
Over comment Yeah, And and it's like and now I'm
(20:07):
in a position in my life where I am exploring
that part of myself again, that family trans side, where
I'm much more comfortable, much more confident with myself, and
I'm depleting fear in my life period. So it's allowing
me to push myself more in a direction where I
feel more authentic than ever. I feel so identify with
you talking about how we run to these big cities, right,
(20:30):
And I'd like to choose what is it you said
just now about like not having to run from where
you're from, because that was me, Like I instantly like
singing was my vessel to get out, right, And I
was like the minute I was old enough to go
do a show somewhere else and and not be at home,
I used it to get out. I ran out of
Virginia fast as I could, And there is a sadness
(20:50):
to that, I think, because it's like, man, like, I
do feel like I missed out on a lot of
stuff of family and friends there, but I didn't feel
like I could be me there, so I ran out,
and like, I don't know, I feel like that you you,
You've just now inspired a little of me to be like, well,
let me kind of let me dig in and see
what I missed out on and maybe I can be
participating in now. So thank you for saying that. Well,
(21:11):
I think that's what we have to do, you know,
And that's something that I did once I became more comfortable.
I learned how to like to spend more time with Tennessee,
with my family, like take the time to um, explore
some of those places that I loved when I was younger,
you know, because we do miss out on that, Like
there's still that nostalgia, you know, and it feels good
to go home, you know, as much as like, I'll
(21:33):
always be an l A girl now because I learned
how to be an adult in l A you know.
But um, the little country girl or boy or non
binary creature in always be a little country thing from
East Tennessee. Because I can't get word of this twin
completely never do please you make mine come out real
(21:54):
strong and probably signed country as hell. In this episode,
as soon as you said Virginia, bitch, you was like, oh,
life from Virginia. But I and I love his accent.
I think it's so hot. So babe, just keep talking
like that because they've spent so long in this industry
trying to turn it off. So what five minutes with
Eureka is back on? Keep talking like that? Wait, you're
(22:17):
gona where? What town in Tennesse? East Tennessee. So I
was born in Bristol, Tennessee, UM, and I grew up
in like left City, Bristol, Tennessee area, and then like
as an adult, I went to college at East Tennessee
State University. So I lived in Johnson City. I'm Johnson City. Yeah.
Do you know Morristown? I know Morristown very well. That's
where my dad lived for the last part of his life.
(22:40):
So I spent a lot of time in Morristown and
Palas Sweaters. Johnny Ingram is from Morristown, Tennessee. Oh really, Wait?
John is from Morristown. I didn't know that world. I
love it. Yeah, I spent a lot of time in Morristown,
and I gotta tell you there is something real beautiful
about that area. East Tennessee is gorgeous, those hills and
(23:02):
it hits right sometimes and I love it. Um. Now
we're gonna take a quick break and we come back.
We're gonna talk more with Eureka. Oh ea, oh, we're
talking everything East Tennessee. We're talking. We're talking our journeys,
(23:25):
we're talking our stories. And you know, there's something I
want to chat with you about. You've been very open
about your sobriety journey and and I think it's so
inspiring and I think it's so necessary and needed. What
motivated you too publicly share on Twitter that you were
in rehab? Um? You know, I don't probably the guilt,
(23:49):
you know. I am like, I'm just a very transparent
person with people and my fans maybe and you know,
sometimes my managers and my agents and people around me
are like, maybe we're old too transparent, But I have
just always found comfort and being honest even if it
hurts me, because I feel like, you know, obviously they
(24:10):
say the truth will set you free and um, you know,
I up left. I up and left in the middle
of my residency in Vegas because I was just going
through it. I had lost my grandmother over the holiday.
I couldn't go home because of COVID, and I just
went into a dark place right before I moved to
Vegas to do the residency for the first time last
(24:30):
year in February last year, and I was just drinking
too much and I wasn't taking care of myself and um,
one morning I was like completely like out of my mind,
and I went and I thought I was like convinced
I had broke my back because I was having back spasms,
which whatever. I was just being paranoid and crazy. I
had like dug my nose too far into a bag
(24:52):
and drank god knows how much alcohol that night and
I was driving to the doctor and like I went
on Instagram live and was acting crazy. I was like
I don't know where I am, you know, I don't.
But not very many people caught that. But once I
got to the doctor, I was like he was like,
I had a long infection. I had uh a u
(25:13):
T I I had UM, I was hydrated, like I
was having muscles. Like the doctor was like, how did
you drive here? Kind of situation. So I ended up
like leaving and I called actually the creators that were here,
and I was like, I need help, and they're like,
what do you mean. We know we've definitely noticed, like
something's different lately. You know, you've been like kind of
(25:34):
isolated and separated. And I told him everything and they
had one of their friends picked me up the next
day and send me off to rehab, and I just
it was the best thing I ever did for myself
because I learned through rehab, through therapy, like working out
some of my childhood trauma, working out just where I
was at mentally in general, but also like learning how
(25:56):
to survive and thrive by taking care of myself LP
versus self medicating. Because it turned out that I had diabetes,
which is why I was so slowed down because my
sugar was so high and I wasn't taking care of it.
So that's what was pushing me to do eppers to
keep going. And then I was just drinking because that's
what I do. I'm an alcoholic, you know. And I
(26:17):
learned about the disease and I learned how to like
work around it and work with it. And you know, um,
that's another way that I started realizing that I wasn't
living while sending self either. Was just like through that journey,
you learn, like you learn more than ever, Like how
fighting against the world is nothing compared to fighting within yourself.
(26:40):
Like when you're fighting within yourself, you can truly destroy
yourself and you will destroy everything around you. If you're
fighting within yourself, you will destroy everything around you and
you and it's so much easier to fight and the
rest of the world didn't fight within yourself. So that's
another reason why I just decided I was going to
be honest and I was gonna start living more authentically
in general, you know, the way I present my gender expression,
(27:02):
working on my gender identity, and you know, I'm happily
ten months sober, and it's a it's trial and error
every day, you know. And I have cravings, and of
course I want to drink with my friends, but I
don't need it anymore, you know, And that's just what
I had to learn. It's like because for me, if
I have one drink, one drink turns into a whole bottle,
(27:24):
and then a whole bottle turns into a whole bag,
and then a whole bag turns into a few days
in a sex dune and probably yea. Now, well, it's
ten months that has served you well because I have
noticed the glow on you every single post that you
put out. I'm like, she is thriving, Like you can
see it. You are literally glowing from the inside. It's
(27:47):
a beautiful thing. So know that it is being noticed
by everybody else too. So congratulations, I can tell you know,
and even in myself, like, that's the thing is, That's
what makes it worth it, you know, is once you
start feeling better and take care of yourself, like I'm
medically taking care of myself. I'm self caring emotionally, you know,
I'm going to therapy, like all these things that you
(28:08):
fight when you're self medicating because you don't want to
let go of your addiction is really the promised land
in the end. You're sharing the story helps so many
people feel seen and also be able to say, hey,
maybe there I have something. Maybe I also am going
through something similar, and so I can't tell you what
(28:29):
how powerful these words are so many people listening. Let's
talk about something else inspirational you do. Let's talk about it,
how you talk about it? The body positive Queen from
day one queen she got the track big Mama Out. Now,
where does that come from? Because it is infectious and
it is something that I think even I envy that
(28:49):
you have because it is spectacular. But I think it's
just learning to love yourself despite the world's opinion of
how how you're supposed to feel about your image, really,
you know, And I think it's just something that took
me a really long time to get to. And also
some days it's me faking it till I make up,
you know what I mean, Like some days, you know,
a guy's opinion will get in my head, or you know,
(29:12):
I wanna be able to order this, but I can't
find it in my size, and I have to remind
myself change that narration. Now, which funck that brand kind?
That brand ain't nobody? That brand's missing out because you
could be wearing and represented. You know. It's just so
it's really sometimes it's just fake it till you make
it too. You know. It's like, keep changing that narrative
(29:33):
from shitty to positive is really what I try to do.
That's the quote for the T shirt. Yeah, and and
you have the song Big Mama, which we talked about.
But what inspired the song because you know it's the
new bop that James can't stop listening to. Well, it's
big mom m A w m A with Adam him right,
(29:55):
did I say big Mama? Well, hold on, you say it, James,
because you have your accent going right now, and it
just it gets me a little heated saying, I mean,
I don't do it as city. I don't do it
as like Debbie as Eureka hits because that's Tennessee. I
do Virginia. But it's new Mama. I'm sweating through my
teeth are sweating into it. Oh hurry home, baby, hurry home.
(30:23):
Here we go. Now you've got me sweating in this car. Baby.
Hang up. Oh you gotta sweat on the podcast, so
keep going that. Tell us about the song, how it
came about, where'd you get where'd you get your inspiration
for this one? Yeah? I mean, honestly, it's just about
I had to find the big mama's spirit with it
myself after losing my mother and my grandmother. It's very
inspired by them, the bigger women in my life. But
(30:43):
I wrote it for any and everyone that's a caretaker
and loves you know what I mean hard, and that
love gets taken advantage of. And it's very easy for
that to happen. And that's for anybody. You know. My
favorite line is, um, no matter daddy, onto your uncle,
big Mama's spirit lives in you because it's true. You know,
that spirit that we're taught from whomever it was that
(31:04):
nurtured us and taught us how to love truly and
unconditionally lives within every single one of us. And that's
where the inspiration came from, was having to like rediscover
that spirit within myself after losing those two women for me,
and then also just like seeing the people that showed
up for me when I needed help and like I
needed to go to rehab and I needed like support
(31:26):
when I came out, and like, it's all those people
that showed up for me then too, you know that
I was inspired by me so and then I love
Katie Katien and serebitenso because they're very powerful female singers
then vocals. Their vocals are incredible. They're also Cish gendered allies,
which I think is really important. Um, and I'm really
wanting to help push them promote more positive female interaction
(31:49):
with queer people and drag queens in general, and you know,
so it's just another opportunity to do that as well,
because I love them so much. And I literally remember
calling Katie and being like, I have this idea for
a song called Big Mama, and I'm literally not doing
it unless you and Sarah on it with me. So
y'all figure it the out and we'll happen. Baby. Let's
(32:12):
take another quick break because there's some more stuff I
want to ask that you know what I'm gonna dive
into next. Let's take a break and come back. We're
still here, We're still queer, and we're still talking to
Eureka O'Hara here on the podcast, James, what do you
(32:34):
want to ask? Well, you know, we've we've covered that.
We're here is out now on HBOS to make sure
you watch it. We have covered Big Mama. We have
covered some of the inspirational story of how we got
to where we are, which I love. But because I
am the world's biggest RuPaul's Dragras fan number one from everything,
and I've been Eureka fansince day one and was so
(32:55):
throw when she came back and was so throw when
she came back again. Because that All Star is ending,
I feel could have gone a multitude of ways. Um.
Obviously because of a personal friend win and I feel
very good about it. Um, But I would love to
see Eureka win too. So is there ever a world
where maybe we get like some type of like Battle
of the All Star All Stars that Eureka would come
back or is that chapter? I don't know, you know,
(33:18):
I if I was, I don't know, girl, it's a
lot because you don't but do it several times at
this point and it's like, you know, I don't need
a crown, girl, I'm building the castle with the style.
You know, It's like I don't need a crown anymore,
you know. I I love doing the show. I love
(33:39):
the show. It's my favorite TV show. Besides we're here obviously. Um.
But I don't know. I might. I might would do
like a US Versus the World or something for fun,
you know, I don't know. It just depends on where
I'm at when they call. You know, it's also really
hard to say no to Rue Paul. So it's like,
you know, what Mama call sometimes when you're good to
(34:01):
Mama good. Damn. I don't know. It's so fun to
watch you compete because you're you are so good at
so many facets of the show. That's why it's so
fun to watch you. That's the only reason I ask you.
I don't think you need a crown. You got a
crown onto me at all times anyway. An he's like
(34:23):
the number one Drag Race fan. I'm probably number two
to the point, like when we go see the Vegas
show Repulse Drag Race Live in Vegas, go see we
get in it. Now, Like it's almost to the point
where like, okay, guys, like what can we come backstage?
You're like maybe you just take a picture out front
and we're like, but maybe we can go look at
the costumes and we can see the set to like,
why don't we just take a photo in the front
(34:44):
with all the girls, And I'm like, the girls are
always very nice when they're there, always welcome. And Camera
gave us a whole tutorial on about how we need
to cover our shoulders if we ever do drag so
we can look more feminist. Cameron Turner. Cameron, No, not Cameron,
I'm talking about Camera. Micros came like Turner Camera Turner's
part of the pit crew from Michael's in the show,
a lot of cameras gets very confusing, although I feel
(35:06):
like Camera Turner could also show us how to demascu
in its has our shoulders a day, right, right? But
that's David. David is the most and I love them hilarious.
It's just out of his gourd and it's Hillaria. I'm like, what,
I never know what he's gonna post on Instagram, Like
every time you post something, I'm like, they're on it. Now.
(35:28):
We're doing Pridecast. This is what we're what we're the
show we're on right now currently as we speak here
in these zooms. Um, So, do you remember your first
Pride like going to your first Pride parade or Pride festival? Yeah?
Where was it? I was booked for Roanoke Pride in
Virginia Pride, and I was booked with and randomly Alyssa
(35:54):
and ch Angela. This was like right before I made
it on drag Race, like the year before probably or
couple of years afore. I don't know, like two years before,
but I just remember being so emotional about it, like
I was just like, Wow, this is so special you know,
like I've never seen anything like it in my whole life.
Because in Eastern to See where I'm from, like they
(36:15):
just had their first Pride like two years ago, you know,
so it was like it was impressive. Rather than that,
I was just impressed. I was like, going to perform
at your first pride, that's pretty cool. Yeah. I had
a pretty unique experience. Do you remember what you did?
I did this like Lady Gaga man in this fact
piece that I made myself, and it was like makeshifts
(36:38):
like hot glued, huge big thing hot glued over like
cardboard and wire. I thought I was the only one,
um and now looked looking back on, I looked a
little rozzy. But but you tell me then I went
and twirled in the house. You couldn't tell me nothing.
I mean I was doing splits and stuff on the car.
(37:00):
Creed probably regretting that now with my hips and she
and I'm like, oh god, she was going off back then. Dan,
Oh my gosh. Oh I wish I was there to
see it. Someone, if anyone's watching, they have video, DM
it to me. Someone's got out who got the taste
some of their seats, I mean there are seats so
this is podcast, and I wanna know what does pride
(37:22):
mean to you? Because it means something different to everyone.
Oh what does pride mean to me? Um? Pride? You know?
I okay, I think pride means something different to me
every day, you know what I mean. Weirdly, I'm just
a very complex person. And um, I don't want to
(37:43):
just say, like pride means, you know, accepting and coming together.
But every day it means something different. It's just something
that I'm proud of. And sometimes it's like just me
being proud to have survived my chaonic minds that day,
or being proud of being sober that day, or being
proud of a friend, or proud of a coworker, or
(38:04):
proud that like I have a roof over my head,
Like I've lived home, lest you know, I've lived low income.
I've lived in so many facets, and I remember not
having drag. I remember, you know, making ship makes shifting
wigs to make them look cool and huge. And now
I have a wall of beautiful, gorgeous wigs and drawers
of jewelry. And so it's like I'm just proud about
(38:25):
so many things. I'm so bad at answering these and
I'm like, let me give you a six part answer. No,
it's perfect. It's different for everybody. But and it changes,
it evolves. Your pride evolves constantly. So this is what
it means now, it's probably some six months from now
that's totally different. And that's the beautiful thing about it.
I mean, I think I probably definitely represents like what
(38:47):
I'm doing, and we're here right now for sure. You
know the work that I put in as like, so
like I put a lot of hard work into it,
all of us did. And I'm just excited every Friday
that when people get to see it because I just
know how much work we put into every episode and
it's a lot, you know, but it's paying off, which
is really exciting. It must be so tough when you
(39:08):
finish that transformation, when we're here and then the camera's
cut off and you gotta actually say bye, What what
do you leave your little drag babies with when you go?
Do you do you have a moment off camera when
you when you're done? Yeah, you know, I always you know,
I still connect with a lot of them, like we're talking,
either on social media or even via tags. It just
depends on you know where they're at with communication what
(39:31):
they need or want. So I definitely take my mothership
very serious. Um. But yeah, I mean, you know, the
good thing is is we leave them with new connections
in their community, which is what I think helps them
the most, whether it's like the other drag Daughters or
other people that worked with us that live in that area,
Like they normally find new tribes competence, which is what
(39:55):
we hope for, you know. And we don't fix anything.
We just helped shine light on my more people that
are support of hopefully a newsafe space, you know, and
also lead them with a little bit of like let
me rub off a little this drag confidence and even
take what you learned in this experience with you using
your everyday life, you know, to teach a man to fish.
(40:15):
You know. That's what you're doing, is is that? And
speaking of drag daughters, Speaking of drag daughters, mm hmm.
Anita Anita Rose in Palm Springs, who is now Anita
Rose over O'Hara. You just saw her perform the other
night and she is so proudly using that O'Hara name
(40:37):
she is. I love that little crazy bit. She's crazy,
like she's cockoo. She did a number the other night
where she pulled out hay and straw from her shirt
and I was on the floor like, I don't know,
like and what I love is that she tries to
be dumber and dumber every time. So Anita Rose O'Hara,
(40:58):
who is one of our favorite queens and pump Springs,
one of Eureka's drag daughters. She's a fabulous queen. Look
her up. She's she comes with us on our outbound cruises.
We love her. So yeah, because she's like she's been
like a Eureka. She's multifaceted, she can do kind of everything,
and it's nice to have those people. So thank you
(41:19):
for passing that down. Yeah, So Eureka, we've been talking
about all the things that are happening and how we're
moving forward. But on Proadcast, we always like to take
a look back at where we've come from, so that
way we can know how to move forward, and it
helps us shine light on where we've been. So, James,
what happened this week in gay history? Well, hopefully I
(41:42):
can get through this little less clocky than that intro was. Baby.
I mean, I don't know, I kind of had a
brain fart in the middle of it, but just go
with it. Well, this one's got a lot of words
to it too, so I'm a paraphrase. Um. Let's go
back to nineteen twenty eight this week. In nineteen eighty,
(42:02):
Baby Alone Radcliffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness was the
first major novel in English that was published with a
pro lesbian theme. Now, it actually had been published in
Paris the previous July, but this was the first time
it had happened in the States, and more than twenty
thousand copies of the book were purchased. It became a
(42:23):
best seller, and it actually there they used the word
sexual inversion at the time. That's what they used for
for gay um, and in it it's actually positive that
she finds this, and there's this explicit plea of give
us the rights to our existence and think about it.
Back then, twenty people bought this book almost a hundred
years ago, and then look at where we are now
(42:45):
with storytelling. It's really cool to look back and see
one of the very first that happened. That's nice story.
Everyone loves lesbians. I love them, I loved them. We
have so many lesbian moms, and we have so many
wonderful lesbians in our life. I seriously like, I feel
(43:05):
so grateful every time I think about it. We have
Oh my god, our lesbian moms are coming on our
Christmas crewise with us next week. I can life is good,
play the music. Each week, we we'd like to shine
our big gay spotlight on people on the lgbt Q
plus community that are doing extraordinary things. James, who are
you shining your big gay spotlight on this week? This week,
(43:27):
I'm signed a big gay spotlight on somebody don't need
a spotlight because every time I see him on Instagram,
there's a spotlight on him. If you've noticed for the
first time the Balton Celtics have selected men to be
on their dance team this season, so you had to
have if you've seen any of their dances, definitely noticed
Patrick Opera And I think I'm saying his last name right.
It's either operation or opening either either way, this dude
(43:48):
is a star. He's out on that dance floor and
he is absolutely killing it. And I think about again,
like think about us being younger and looking out and
seeing this To know I used to love them dance
teams I used to love it and to a guy
out there doing and know that I could have been
a part of that. And to see how well Patrick
is doing this, um, he is shining, shining, shining, and
not only there, but I look on his Instagram all
(44:09):
the time and he's choreographing all this different stuff, like
really great choreography. So Patrick, big a spotlight on you
this week, buddy, congrats, Congrats Eureka. Anybody in your life
you'd love to shut up big lgbt Q plus spotlight
on Yes, I you know I would love to shine
a big spotlight on my drag sister, Patriona Avaans. She
(44:31):
just moved to Vegas to better her life. And she's
a beautiful black trans woman. I've known her for many,
many years, and she's really working so hard to just
put herself and set her up and set herself up
into up at her place. And I just think that
is so heroic and magical, especially in our time. And
she's been for a lot in East Tennessee and I
can't wait to see what she brings to the world
(44:52):
with her fresh start. I love to drop her Instagram
so I can follow her. Honey. Avam's Underscore Patriana. They
watch R I A N A. I'm excited to get
to Vegas and see all y'all perform. I know we
can't wait to see you in the show. Repulsed Dagary's Life.
Eureka is in in Vegas right now. Go see it. Eureka,
thank you so much for joining us. You have so
(45:13):
much stuff going on. Everyone go to Eureka's Instagram. You
can catch up on everything she's doing. I love you
guys so much. Thank you, we love you. You're super
you too, Alright, by bye, I
This is Pridecast with Jonathan Bennett, James v on I
Heart Radio. Hello. Hello, Hello everybody, it's John in the Minute.
Welcome to a new episode of podcast on I Heart Radio.
I'm joined by James Vaughan, my husband. Hello, baby, that's
all I get this week. Wait a minute. Okay, my
(00:25):
hot honky happy I married him sometimes husband, James Vaughan, Baby,
you're in the car doing this episode. I'm at the
Pridecast studio, which really is just our our second test bedroom.
So don't everyone when you see us, like with the
big wall, I just want to pull the the rope
(00:46):
away and let everyone know it's just our guest bedroom.
You can see the light switch, It's okay, it's okay.
And James had had an anxiety attack about that light
switch that if people were to see it, they would
know that we were in our bedroom. So aesthetically, I
don't like the look of it. I want the aesthetic
to be consistent. It's our bedroom, baby, they know that.
(01:07):
I just like a nice, cleanthetic gay and me needs
symmetry and needs a clean aesthetic. Everything to be Jonathan David,
oh my gosh, you were such a child. Can we
talk about why I'm doing this pridcast with you. Hang on,
I'm in the car right now doing podcast as my
baby is in the air quote studio. Because Eureka is
(01:29):
our guest today and she went my all time, all time,
all time favorite queens and John, I'm like, I'll just
do podcasts about you. I know you're busy today. You
gotta shoot going on. I'm like, oh no, no, no,
no, no no no. I will park the car outside the
shoot and I will set up. So now I'm sitting
in the car. The A c's off, so it'll it'll
not be um, you know, not make noise. But unfortunately,
now I'm sweating profusely because the a CS off. But
(01:49):
I'm getting this prodcast done because I did not want
to miss this opportunity to talk to Eureka. So now
we can talk about Christmas. Baby, let's get me. I
can't tell you because that will spoil the surpris. Okay,
let's just tell everyone, are honest truth about what we
do for gifts. Guys, listen to your uncle James and Jonathan. Okay,
here's our key to Christmas gift giving. Ready. The key
(02:11):
to Christmas gift giving is we don't do it and
let me tell you why, because it's too stressful. So
I understand there's the joy of giving. But what James
and I have done as decided, what if we just
never gave each other gifts? How nice that would be
because every time we're together it's a gift. Oh my god,
(02:31):
that's so cute. Every time we're together it's a gift.
And so we just years ago made a decision that
we never trade Christmas gifts. So there's no shopping that
has to be done, there's no stress. We just like
lay around and like do nothing on Christmas and it's
so much fun. So what do I do with the
gift that I got you this year? Didn't give me one?
I know you didn't, um let me make sure I
(02:54):
got the receipts. Still, first of all, I just want
to make sure we were still doing that. So I
had to set up to be like, wait, we are
still doing the no gift things, right? We do know
because we do live a very very fortunate life, my love.
We're so fortunate, and the most fortunate thing that we
have is that we found each other. And so there's
not really anything that I need beyond that except deodorant sometimes,
(03:15):
but that's another story. But I'll get you that. But
here's the thing. The thing is, if you are stressed
about what you want to get your partner this this
holiday season, why don't you ask your partner be like, hey,
I haven't gotten your gift yet, have you gotten mine yet?
And if they say no, but like, what if we
just didn't do gifts this year? Because I bet you
your partner is thinking the same thing of like, dang it,
I don't want to have the stress of this either
because it stresses me out. So hey, you know what,
(03:37):
tell him Uncle James and Johnny sent you and they
he and they said, don't do gifts. But do you
remember the very first Christmas President I did ever give you? Yes,
it was an Apple Watch. No, it was not the
very first present I ever gave you was telling you
I love the very first present he ever gave me.
Forget that that said I love you, I love you,
(03:58):
I love you, I love you. So I was said
I loved you, and that's how you told me love me.
But I have my Apple watch that I wear now
to this day. And oh well, Le'm gonna look at
the time. You know what time? It is. It's time
to bring on Eureka. Ya. We are so excited to
have on Pridecast one of my favorite queens, but not
just a queen, a legend doing the most good for
(04:20):
the lgbt Q plus community. It's the one and only Eureka. Ohharra,
well you found it. Oh we found you. Wait, I
want to do the because I've been singing this all day.
I want, hey, big surprise you're here. I've been listening
to your song on repeat in the car for the
(04:41):
past hour because I was like, wait, I haven't heard
eurekas song yet, and I put it on and you know,
when you really like the songs, you just haven't repeat
over and over. So that's what I've been doing. So
it is in my head. Fresh, thank you. I'm gonna
get off this podcast and put it back on again.
Just f y. It's so good, baby, it's You're gonna
love it. James is and car right everybody, So he's
trying to make it work. Yeah, okay, James is in
(05:03):
the car. He's trying to make it work. His audios crap.
But you know what, we love him anyway because we gotta.
He's he didn't pay for that updated WiFi signal. You know,
he was trying to save a buck, so he went
with just the good old fashioned dial up internet in
the car. I'm recording audio from here, so I'll have
good audio here. Don't worry. We can make Okay, we can.
You can understand me. We're good, Okay, we can make it.
(05:25):
I wasn't gonna miss Eureka's episode, so I couldn't get
there to be in the studio with you. So I
pulled the car over on the side of the road
and I'm doing broadcast from from from a safe spot.
We were parked safely in the parking lot. But I'm
doing proadcast from the car. Okay. So now, Eureka, where
are you right now? So I'm in Vegas. Tonight is
my first night back for the Drag Race Live show.
(05:46):
I'll be here off them. So I'm doing that, you know,
just because I wanted to settle moment and I wanted
to be able to like do all the press and
show up to everything I needed tooper We're here while
it's airing and streaming, so you know, and I at
the end of the year is always kind is slow
and it's family times. I was like girl put a
big bitch up on the stage with a back piece
on it. It really is. And that show, I think
(06:08):
we've seen it ten times and it never gets old.
It's just so much fun every time. What's some of
your favorite parts about performing in that specific theater, Like
there's something magical about it if you asked me. Yeah,
I mean my favorite part is just being able to
wear my clothes and not have to worry about like
duck them through doorways or like walking through a puddle
of alcohol or you know, that's probably my most favorite part.
(06:31):
My others just working with the girls. You know, you
don't get to work with the girls very often unless
you're touring or doing something like this, So it's just
like the camaraderie is really fun um And I especially
love the mirror song. I think it's such a sweet
moment for all the girls, and like the song's cute
and I don't know, I'm a snappy match, so you
are wait this is me? Is your number in the show? Right? Yeah?
(06:56):
Because we saw Cocoa do it, which was amazing because
you know, miss Coco, she's a precision lip singer. But
I've got to get back because I got to see
Eureka do it because I can't. I will be a mess.
I will be speaking, are going to be a sappy
I'll be sappy. One that I did create, the numb
wearing my costume was everything it is not. She created
the number. Actually there's a story behind that because they
(07:19):
had this other like flyaway skirt that was made out
of like this parachute material. And I literally looked at
Randovos and I was like, I love you. But now
also that's how I tell anyone that I don't like something.
I always start with like I love you, but I
love you, but now you know, oh my gosh. So
I called Marco Marco and literally twenty four hours later
(07:41):
him and his team like produced this amazing skirt that
tears off the stage, that covers the entire stage. So
it's it's iconic. Yeah, I don't want to get too
much of it away, but there's a big reveal when
that happens too, which is really really fantastic part of
that number. So we are coming back to Vegas to
see you in that for sure, because I'm not gonna
miss him about all time favorites perform on that stage.
(08:03):
That's so sweet. James I love you, but I'm gonna
start saying that a lot. But we need to talk
about we Are Here? Is what when you talk about that?
It's out now on HBO. Yes, season three of We're Here.
That's amazing to see that, like this show that started
in the pandemic has now turned into this truly a
(08:25):
global phenomenon. Can you believe it? Is it? Like? Is
it real to you yet? Yeah? I mean, of course
I believe a girl. You know, my first question nominated shopping.
I'm getting um now. But it's it's I guess it
is hard to believe sometimes, but it's just an incredible show.
I just I'm so blessed that it's getting out there
because it's so educational but also uplifting and really important
(08:48):
now more than ever, with all the issues that we're
having politically, all the issues that we're having socially with
equality and things. It just shines light on real stories
that people can relate to. Do you think, actually, what
what do you think if We're Here had come to
Baby Eureka in your hometown? Where do you think that
experience would have been like for you? And what do
(09:10):
you think that would have changed for you? In your
growth and to who you are now. Yeah, you know, um,
I think it would have definitely like just seeing people
growing up would have been nice, not uh made out
to be a forest right Like, I mean, you know,
the closest thing I ever saw it, like trans People
was like Mari Povitch is a man or a woman
and how toxic is that? You know? But I was
(09:32):
extremely intrigued and wanted to watch it, you know, um,
because that was the only place I could see people.
And I remember seeing Dina Cass She's a legendary drag
queen on Jerry Springer and it's like, you know, and
so that's where we saw like our community was in
these like really hysteria comic lely driven forest typed um
(09:53):
positions and constantly make fun of in the entertainment industry
on TV shows things like that. So it would have
been amazing to see myself like portrayed on TV in
a positive way. Well, because you're doing that for somebody
right now, which is the cool thing. We always talked
about this on Pridecast is that like we're in this
really cool time in history where we're getting to do
it for our younger selves. So there's somebody that's gonna
(10:14):
miss all those hiccups and all that trauma you went
through just because they're getting to see Eureka on their TVs.
That miss them all, but it will probably a little easier. Yeah. Yeah,
you kind of gotta go through the ship to get
through to the glory of being who you are. You know,
the only way out is through huh. Yeah. So that's
my advice normally to people is like be patient with
(10:35):
the situation to continue learning how to be your authentic self,
because that's when you start attracting people that are like
you or that are truly accepting and loving for who
you are naturally. You know. Yeah, it's so interesting to
what you said about how the only time you saw
people that look like you on screen most of the
time that was like you. They were it was like
(10:57):
a first situation where you know, it was a gimmick
almost to like for people laugh and identify with that
so much because it being a being a gay actor.
Even just like the actors that I would see that
look like what I wanted to be doing, no one
was ever like grounded in reality, you know what I mean,
Like it was it wasn't real. So I really really
(11:19):
that really hits home when you say I I I
identify with that so much. And I think we've come
so far from the shows we watched growing up in
the movies we saw to where we are now, Like
I look at what's on there on TV right now,
it's just amazing. What is amazing. But also the entertainment
industry is still a little you know, developing. I think
(11:42):
it's still pushing the boundaries of equality as far as
like learning how to um. I think also the audience too,
is learning how to accept different people in different roles.
I mean even when I mean not to like ask
you this, but I'm curious. I know you're interviewing me,
but like even you coming out as gay, Like, how
did it affect your acting career? You know, sometimes it
can be very effective. Yeah, Pigeon, Yes, absolutely, And for
(12:08):
me it was there was a I was I was
out to my friends and family, but I wasn't like
out publicly. And it wasn't until I met James and
fell in love and knew this time I want to
be and I was still in the closet like I
I would do. I did TV shows and like press
and big things that were reality based where I still
(12:30):
wouldn't tell anyone that I was gay, And it wasn't
until I met James and fell in love that I realized,
Like I was sitting there and I was like, I
don't want to be the thirty world guy, like closeted
actor that was like a teen heart throb that's still
in the closet trying to chase this like the idea
(12:50):
that if you know or still living in this spear
that if if you come out and everyone knows that
you're gay, you're gonna lose all your jobs. You're never
gonna be a leading man, You're not gonna you're not
gonna get the leads of these shows. Like all those
fears went through you, like if they find out who
you are, they're going to take everything away from you.
And I was so nervous. But then when I fell
in love and was just like at a point, was like,
I don't care if they take it all away from me.
(13:12):
I don't want to be that guy because that's just
I feel that I'm sad for him, like I was
sad for myself. It's like, no, that's not cute. So
I did it and exactly the opposite of what I
thought was gonna happen. Happened. I flourished, and because people
saw me for me. And when people see the real
you and the authentic you, that's when they're attracted to you.
(13:33):
That's when the bookings come in. That's when the jobs
come in. And here I am in the Holiday Sitter
airing on Hallmark Channel where this this Christmas where it's
two gay men that are the leads of a Hallmark
Christmas movie. Like that, that's what a leading man looks like,
you know what I mean? And leading for this movie,
you know, and it changes for every movie. What a
(13:54):
leading man or woman or whatever the leads want to
be can be whatever they want. There are no rules,
and it's so I think it's changing so much, and
it's still not all the way there yet obviously, but
it's I mean, can you imagine like the little sixteen
year old seventeen year old kids that are like figuring
out who they are and they're scared, and they're sitting
(14:15):
in their living rooms with their parents watching these Christmas
movies with their mom and dad or whoever, and this
movie comes on and it's a movie filled with love
and family and it's so heartwarming and funny and they're
just able to see themselves like how less scared they're
going to be that Christmas. It's great, I mean, and
(14:36):
it's it's also just seeing their parents watching a movie
like yes, you know, that's the accepting part. That's the
part part will come to all. I mean, That's what
I'm saying is like I think that we are moving
in a positive direction. And that's another another like pinpoint
on that thing I was saying, like, the more at
them you start being yourself, the more you attract those
people that I want to work with you, that want
(14:58):
to be around you. So interesting. I love to hear that.
You know that you're leading in a movie this Christmas.
I didn't know. I'm sorry, I'll have to watch it.
Sounds so exciting. Don't don't think I'm not going to
d M you to put it on your story my story. Trust.
We need we need those ratings up because there you know,
there's so many people out there that are fighting to
(15:19):
like boycott the you know, boycott the network, don't watch,
so we really need the LGBTQ plus family to rally behind,
you know, so which they will. That's what that's the
problem with with the entertainment industry. It is the audience
that we're fighting, you know. Now, it's not the opportunities,
it's like the audience push back, and that's really where
we're having issues socially, which is being driven by these politicians.
(15:44):
I feel that are you know, one allowing people to
feel comfort and speaking out about their discrimination because they
see someone in a position of power being able to
do it, so then in in validates the and how
they feel in them expressing it. So it's just causing
issues for us. I mean, we just had another tragic
(16:05):
incident in Colorado, Like at what are Colorado springs? At
what point will enough be enough where politicians where someone's
going to take notice that it's affecting us and it's
hurting people that we love and it's killing people, you know.
But it's also like pushing people to do really intense
and violent things. It's just wild to me. It's truly sad,
(16:28):
and it all comes from ignorance when you get to
the root of it. It's just ignorance as people not
expanding the horizons and learning that just because somebody doesn't
look like you, or talk like you, or act like you,
doesn't mean that you shouldn't get to know them like
I think that's when we The people that are the
most unlike me are kind of the people I love
having around the most. Those are people that feel like
I learned the most from And it's so sad that,
(16:50):
like I think, us as queer people, we figure that
out pretty soon, but it seems like these other people
that aren't as fabulous as us don't get to figure
that out so quick. And it's it's just sad because
it does just create division and and a lot of
negative outcomes. So thank you for speaking out on that. Eureka.
I see that you're doing in a lot of places
that it's not just here. But I've been reading a
lot of your interviews. I keep up. I am a fan,
(17:12):
and so I see all the stuff you say. It's
always so good those interviews though, Eureka, Um, there was
one I think it was in I read it. It
was in them, um where you told a little bit
of your backstory. And I think us sharing our stories
is so important because there's somebody that will always identify
with a part of your story and it will help
(17:34):
them to hopefully do it better right to do it?
Do it? Uh? Are differently, but hopefully better. I say
better than mine. I say, let me be your cautionary tale.
Don't make my mistakes. Let me tell you about them. Um,
when you talk about the time you when you were
in Tennessee, uh earlier on, what was that time like
for you? Because that really touched me to read that
part of your interview. I mean it was hard, you know,
(17:55):
it was very um negative, it was scary, it was traumatizing,
it was abusive, you know. Um. I lived as an
open trans person, trans woman for four years there. I
went to college. You know, I went through a lot
of really horrible things to where it put me in
a fearful place where I de transitioned, I like retransitioned
(18:16):
to give myself this like opportunity to be a queer man.
And then I got on drag race. I moved to
l A. I found non binary, you know, so that's
when I finally started exploring this comfort of like gender
gray area and kind of came content with like non binary. Um.
But yeah, I mean it was just hard. You know.
(18:37):
Sitnessee was a rough place to grow up. My family was,
you know, well my dad's side of the family, because
my mother's side of family still in Germany, so I
didn't really connect with them very much because they're in
another country. But my dad's side of family is like
low income, like ones out to say, like what you
experienced for picture white trailer trash to look like is
my dad's family whom it can be the most judgmental people. Um,
(19:01):
you know, so it just wasn't pleasant, you know, But
I had my mother and my grandmother luckily. You know.
My school was hard. You know, you have to like
learn to pretend to be someone you're not to survive,
you know, you learn a lot of survival tactic. Um.
I had to, you know, do a lot of things
I'm not proud of. You know. I was pushed into
sex work as a transperson because I couldn't keep a
(19:22):
job because my legal name. You know. It's just a
lot of things that happened. But I grew from it,
you know, and I found peace moving away from it,
you know, which is what randomly we tried to help
with and we're here, is like why do we have
to always run away from where we're from or the
places that we grow up? You know, even though we
might love those areas, you know, it still becomes easier
(19:44):
for us to run to these bigger cities where we
have at least a little nest of of public love
and acceptance was born. And so anyway, that's another part
of it. I mean, I can go on and on,
but I you know, I don't like to talk too
much about that part of my life because I did
to over comment. But what what I did the lesson here? Yeah?
Over comment Yeah, And and it's like and now I'm
(20:07):
in a position in my life where I am exploring
that part of myself again, that family trans side, where
I'm much more comfortable, much more confident with myself, and
I'm depleting fear in my life period. So it's allowing
me to push myself more in a direction where I
feel more authentic than ever. I feel so identify with
you talking about how we run to these big cities, right,
(20:30):
And I'd like to choose what is it you said
just now about like not having to run from where
you're from, because that was me, Like I instantly like
singing was my vessel to get out, right, And I
was like the minute I was old enough to go
do a show somewhere else and and not be at home,
I used it to get out. I ran out of
Virginia fast as I could, And there is a sadness
(20:50):
to that, I think, because it's like, man, like, I
do feel like I missed out on a lot of
stuff of family and friends there, but I didn't feel
like I could be me there, so I ran out,
and like, I don't know, I feel like that you you,
You've just now inspired a little of me to be like, well,
let me kind of let me dig in and see
what I missed out on and maybe I can be
participating in now. So thank you for saying that. Well,
(21:11):
I think that's what we have to do, you know,
And that's something that I did once I became more comfortable.
I learned how to like to spend more time with Tennessee,
with my family, like take the time to um, explore
some of those places that I loved when I was younger,
you know, because we do miss out on that, Like
there's still that nostalgia, you know, and it feels good
to go home, you know, as much as like, I'll
(21:33):
always be an l A girl now because I learned
how to be an adult in l A you know.
But um, the little country girl or boy or non
binary creature in always be a little country thing from
East Tennessee. Because I can't get word of this twin
completely never do please you make mine come out real
(21:54):
strong and probably signed country as hell. In this episode,
as soon as you said Virginia, bitch, you was like, oh,
life from Virginia. But I and I love his accent.
I think it's so hot. So babe, just keep talking
like that because they've spent so long in this industry
trying to turn it off. So what five minutes with
Eureka is back on? Keep talking like that? Wait, you're
(22:17):
gona where? What town in Tennesse? East Tennessee. So I
was born in Bristol, Tennessee, UM, and I grew up
in like left City, Bristol, Tennessee area, and then like
as an adult, I went to college at East Tennessee
State University. So I lived in Johnson City. I'm Johnson City. Yeah.
Do you know Morristown? I know Morristown very well. That's
where my dad lived for the last part of his life.
(22:40):
So I spent a lot of time in Morristown and
Palas Sweaters. Johnny Ingram is from Morristown, Tennessee. Oh really, Wait?
John is from Morristown. I didn't know that world. I
love it. Yeah, I spent a lot of time in Morristown,
and I gotta tell you there is something real beautiful
about that area. East Tennessee is gorgeous, those hills and
(23:02):
it hits right sometimes and I love it. Um. Now
we're gonna take a quick break and we come back.
We're gonna talk more with Eureka. Oh ea, oh, we're
talking everything East Tennessee. We're talking. We're talking our journeys,
(23:25):
we're talking our stories. And you know, there's something I
want to chat with you about. You've been very open
about your sobriety journey and and I think it's so
inspiring and I think it's so necessary and needed. What
motivated you too publicly share on Twitter that you were
in rehab? Um? You know, I don't probably the guilt,
(23:49):
you know. I am like, I'm just a very transparent
person with people and my fans maybe and you know,
sometimes my managers and my agents and people around me
are like, maybe we're old too transparent, But I have
just always found comfort and being honest even if it
hurts me, because I feel like, you know, obviously they
(24:10):
say the truth will set you free and um, you know,
I up left. I up and left in the middle
of my residency in Vegas because I was just going
through it. I had lost my grandmother over the holiday.
I couldn't go home because of COVID, and I just
went into a dark place right before I moved to
Vegas to do the residency for the first time last
(24:30):
year in February last year, and I was just drinking
too much and I wasn't taking care of myself and um,
one morning I was like completely like out of my mind,
and I went and I thought I was like convinced
I had broke my back because I was having back spasms,
which whatever. I was just being paranoid and crazy. I
had like dug my nose too far into a bag
(24:52):
and drank god knows how much alcohol that night and
I was driving to the doctor and like I went
on Instagram live and was acting crazy. I was like
I don't know where I am, you know, I don't.
But not very many people caught that. But once I
got to the doctor, I was like he was like,
I had a long infection. I had uh a u
(25:13):
T I I had UM, I was hydrated, like I
was having muscles. Like the doctor was like, how did
you drive here? Kind of situation. So I ended up
like leaving and I called actually the creators that were here,
and I was like, I need help, and they're like,
what do you mean. We know we've definitely noticed, like
something's different lately. You know, you've been like kind of
(25:34):
isolated and separated. And I told him everything and they
had one of their friends picked me up the next
day and send me off to rehab, and I just
it was the best thing I ever did for myself
because I learned through rehab, through therapy, like working out
some of my childhood trauma, working out just where I
was at mentally in general, but also like learning how
(25:56):
to survive and thrive by taking care of myself LP
versus self medicating. Because it turned out that I had diabetes,
which is why I was so slowed down because my
sugar was so high and I wasn't taking care of it.
So that's what was pushing me to do eppers to
keep going. And then I was just drinking because that's
what I do. I'm an alcoholic, you know. And I
(26:17):
learned about the disease and I learned how to like
work around it and work with it. And you know, um,
that's another way that I started realizing that I wasn't
living while sending self either. Was just like through that journey,
you learn, like you learn more than ever, Like how
fighting against the world is nothing compared to fighting within yourself.
(26:40):
Like when you're fighting within yourself, you can truly destroy
yourself and you will destroy everything around you. If you're
fighting within yourself, you will destroy everything around you and
you and it's so much easier to fight and the
rest of the world didn't fight within yourself. So that's
another reason why I just decided I was going to
be honest and I was gonna start living more authentically
in general, you know, the way I present my gender expression,
(27:02):
working on my gender identity, and you know, I'm happily
ten months sober, and it's a it's trial and error
every day, you know. And I have cravings, and of
course I want to drink with my friends, but I
don't need it anymore, you know, And that's just what
I had to learn. It's like because for me, if
I have one drink, one drink turns into a whole bottle,
(27:24):
and then a whole bottle turns into a whole bag,
and then a whole bag turns into a few days
in a sex dune and probably yea. Now, well, it's
ten months that has served you well because I have
noticed the glow on you every single post that you
put out. I'm like, she is thriving, Like you can
see it. You are literally glowing from the inside. It's
(27:47):
a beautiful thing. So know that it is being noticed
by everybody else too. So congratulations, I can tell you know,
and even in myself, like, that's the thing is, That's
what makes it worth it, you know, is once you
start feeling better and take care of yourself, like I'm
medically taking care of myself. I'm self caring emotionally, you know,
I'm going to therapy, like all these things that you
(28:08):
fight when you're self medicating because you don't want to
let go of your addiction is really the promised land
in the end. You're sharing the story helps so many
people feel seen and also be able to say, hey,
maybe there I have something. Maybe I also am going
through something similar, and so I can't tell you what
(28:29):
how powerful these words are so many people listening. Let's
talk about something else inspirational you do. Let's talk about it,
how you talk about it? The body positive Queen from
day one queen she got the track big Mama Out. Now,
where does that come from? Because it is infectious and
it is something that I think even I envy that
(28:49):
you have because it is spectacular. But I think it's
just learning to love yourself despite the world's opinion of
how how you're supposed to feel about your image, really,
you know, And I think it's just something that took
me a really long time to get to. And also
some days it's me faking it till I make up,
you know what I mean, Like some days, you know,
a guy's opinion will get in my head, or you know,
(29:12):
I wanna be able to order this, but I can't
find it in my size, and I have to remind
myself change that narration. Now, which funck that brand kind?
That brand ain't nobody? That brand's missing out because you
could be wearing and represented. You know. It's just so
it's really sometimes it's just fake it till you make
it too. You know. It's like, keep changing that narrative
(29:33):
from shitty to positive is really what I try to do.
That's the quote for the T shirt. Yeah, and and
you have the song Big Mama, which we talked about.
But what inspired the song because you know it's the
new bop that James can't stop listening to. Well, it's
big mom m A w m A with Adam him right,
(29:55):
did I say big Mama? Well, hold on, you say it, James,
because you have your accent going right now, and it
just it gets me a little heated saying, I mean,
I don't do it as city. I don't do it
as like Debbie as Eureka hits because that's Tennessee. I
do Virginia. But it's new Mama. I'm sweating through my
teeth are sweating into it. Oh hurry home, baby, hurry home.
(30:23):
Here we go. Now you've got me sweating in this car. Baby.
Hang up. Oh you gotta sweat on the podcast, so
keep going that. Tell us about the song, how it
came about, where'd you get where'd you get your inspiration
for this one? Yeah? I mean, honestly, it's just about
I had to find the big mama's spirit with it
myself after losing my mother and my grandmother. It's very
inspired by them, the bigger women in my life. But
(30:43):
I wrote it for any and everyone that's a caretaker
and loves you know what I mean hard, and that
love gets taken advantage of. And it's very easy for
that to happen. And that's for anybody. You know. My
favorite line is, um, no matter daddy, onto your uncle,
big Mama's spirit lives in you because it's true. You know,
that spirit that we're taught from whomever it was that
(31:04):
nurtured us and taught us how to love truly and
unconditionally lives within every single one of us. And that's
where the inspiration came from, was having to like rediscover
that spirit within myself after losing those two women for me,
and then also just like seeing the people that showed
up for me when I needed help and like I
needed to go to rehab and I needed like support
(31:26):
when I came out, and like, it's all those people
that showed up for me then too, you know that
I was inspired by me so and then I love
Katie Katien and serebitenso because they're very powerful female singers
then vocals. Their vocals are incredible. They're also Cish gendered allies,
which I think is really important. Um, and I'm really
wanting to help push them promote more positive female interaction
(31:49):
with queer people and drag queens in general, and you know,
so it's just another opportunity to do that as well,
because I love them so much. And I literally remember
calling Katie and being like, I have this idea for
a song called Big Mama, and I'm literally not doing
it unless you and Sarah on it with me. So
y'all figure it the out and we'll happen. Baby. Let's
(32:12):
take another quick break because there's some more stuff I
want to ask that you know what I'm gonna dive
into next. Let's take a break and come back. We're
still here, We're still queer, and we're still talking to
Eureka O'Hara here on the podcast, James, what do you
(32:34):
want to ask? Well, you know, we've we've covered that.
We're here is out now on HBOS to make sure
you watch it. We have covered Big Mama. We have
covered some of the inspirational story of how we got
to where we are, which I love. But because I
am the world's biggest RuPaul's Dragras fan number one from everything,
and I've been Eureka fansince day one and was so
(32:55):
throw when she came back and was so throw when
she came back again. Because that All Star is ending,
I feel could have gone a multitude of ways. Um.
Obviously because of a personal friend win and I feel
very good about it. Um, But I would love to
see Eureka win too. So is there ever a world
where maybe we get like some type of like Battle
of the All Star All Stars that Eureka would come
back or is that chapter? I don't know, you know,
(33:18):
I if I was, I don't know, girl, it's a
lot because you don't but do it several times at
this point and it's like, you know, I don't need
a crown, girl, I'm building the castle with the style.
You know, It's like I don't need a crown anymore,
you know. I I love doing the show. I love
(33:39):
the show. It's my favorite TV show. Besides we're here obviously. Um.
But I don't know. I might. I might would do
like a US Versus the World or something for fun,
you know, I don't know. It just depends on where
I'm at when they call. You know, it's also really
hard to say no to Rue Paul. So it's like,
you know, what Mama call sometimes when you're good to
(34:01):
Mama good. Damn. I don't know. It's so fun to
watch you compete because you're you are so good at
so many facets of the show. That's why it's so
fun to watch you. That's the only reason I ask you.
I don't think you need a crown. You got a
crown onto me at all times anyway. An he's like
(34:23):
the number one Drag Race fan. I'm probably number two
to the point, like when we go see the Vegas
show Repulse Drag Race Live in Vegas, go see we
get in it. Now, Like it's almost to the point
where like, okay, guys, like what can we come backstage?
You're like maybe you just take a picture out front
and we're like, but maybe we can go look at
the costumes and we can see the set to like,
why don't we just take a photo in the front
(34:44):
with all the girls, And I'm like, the girls are
always very nice when they're there, always welcome. And Camera
gave us a whole tutorial on about how we need
to cover our shoulders if we ever do drag so
we can look more feminist. Cameron Turner. Cameron, No, not Cameron,
I'm talking about Camera. Micros came like Turner Camera Turner's
part of the pit crew from Michael's in the show,
a lot of cameras gets very confusing, although I feel
(35:06):
like Camera Turner could also show us how to demascu
in its has our shoulders a day, right, right? But
that's David. David is the most and I love them hilarious.
It's just out of his gourd and it's Hillaria. I'm like, what,
I never know what he's gonna post on Instagram, Like
every time you post something, I'm like, they're on it. Now.
(35:28):
We're doing Pridecast. This is what we're what we're the
show we're on right now currently as we speak here
in these zooms. Um, So, do you remember your first
Pride like going to your first Pride parade or Pride festival? Yeah?
Where was it? I was booked for Roanoke Pride in
Virginia Pride, and I was booked with and randomly Alyssa
(35:54):
and ch Angela. This was like right before I made
it on drag Race, like the year before probably or
couple of years afore. I don't know, like two years before,
but I just remember being so emotional about it, like
I was just like, Wow, this is so special you know,
like I've never seen anything like it in my whole life.
Because in Eastern to See where I'm from, like they
(36:15):
just had their first Pride like two years ago, you know,
so it was like it was impressive. Rather than that,
I was just impressed. I was like, going to perform
at your first pride, that's pretty cool. Yeah. I had
a pretty unique experience. Do you remember what you did?
I did this like Lady Gaga man in this fact
piece that I made myself, and it was like makeshifts
(36:38):
like hot glued, huge big thing hot glued over like
cardboard and wire. I thought I was the only one,
um and now looked looking back on, I looked a
little rozzy. But but you tell me then I went
and twirled in the house. You couldn't tell me nothing.
I mean I was doing splits and stuff on the car.
(37:00):
Creed probably regretting that now with my hips and she
and I'm like, oh god, she was going off back then. Dan,
Oh my gosh. Oh I wish I was there to
see it. Someone, if anyone's watching, they have video, DM
it to me. Someone's got out who got the taste
some of their seats, I mean there are seats so
this is podcast, and I wanna know what does pride
(37:22):
mean to you? Because it means something different to everyone.
Oh what does pride mean to me? Um? Pride? You know?
I okay, I think pride means something different to me
every day, you know what I mean. Weirdly, I'm just
a very complex person. And um, I don't want to
(37:43):
just say, like pride means, you know, accepting and coming together.
But every day it means something different. It's just something
that I'm proud of. And sometimes it's like just me
being proud to have survived my chaonic minds that day,
or being proud of being sober that day, or being
proud of a friend, or proud of a coworker, or
(38:04):
proud that like I have a roof over my head,
Like I've lived home, lest you know, I've lived low income.
I've lived in so many facets, and I remember not
having drag. I remember, you know, making ship makes shifting
wigs to make them look cool and huge. And now
I have a wall of beautiful, gorgeous wigs and drawers
of jewelry. And so it's like I'm just proud about
(38:25):
so many things. I'm so bad at answering these and
I'm like, let me give you a six part answer. No,
it's perfect. It's different for everybody. But and it changes,
it evolves. Your pride evolves constantly. So this is what
it means now, it's probably some six months from now
that's totally different. And that's the beautiful thing about it.
I mean, I think I probably definitely represents like what
(38:47):
I'm doing, and we're here right now for sure. You
know the work that I put in as like, so
like I put a lot of hard work into it,
all of us did. And I'm just excited every Friday
that when people get to see it because I just
know how much work we put into every episode and
it's a lot, you know, but it's paying off, which
is really exciting. It must be so tough when you
(39:08):
finish that transformation, when we're here and then the camera's
cut off and you gotta actually say bye, What what
do you leave your little drag babies with when you go?
Do you do you have a moment off camera when
you when you're done? Yeah, you know, I always you know,
I still connect with a lot of them, like we're talking,
either on social media or even via tags. It just
depends on you know where they're at with communication what
(39:31):
they need or want. So I definitely take my mothership
very serious. Um. But yeah, I mean, you know, the
good thing is is we leave them with new connections
in their community, which is what I think helps them
the most, whether it's like the other drag Daughters or
other people that worked with us that live in that area,
Like they normally find new tribes competence, which is what
(39:55):
we hope for, you know. And we don't fix anything.
We just helped shine light on my more people that
are support of hopefully a newsafe space, you know, and
also lead them with a little bit of like let
me rub off a little this drag confidence and even
take what you learned in this experience with you using
your everyday life, you know, to teach a man to fish.
(40:15):
You know. That's what you're doing, is is that? And
speaking of drag daughters, Speaking of drag daughters, mm hmm.
Anita Anita Rose in Palm Springs, who is now Anita
Rose over O'Hara. You just saw her perform the other
night and she is so proudly using that O'Hara name
(40:37):
she is. I love that little crazy bit. She's crazy,
like she's cockoo. She did a number the other night
where she pulled out hay and straw from her shirt
and I was on the floor like, I don't know,
like and what I love is that she tries to
be dumber and dumber every time. So Anita Rose O'Hara,
(40:58):
who is one of our favorite queens and pump Springs,
one of Eureka's drag daughters. She's a fabulous queen. Look
her up. She's she comes with us on our outbound cruises.
We love her. So yeah, because she's like she's been
like a Eureka. She's multifaceted, she can do kind of everything,
and it's nice to have those people. So thank you
(41:19):
for passing that down. Yeah, So Eureka, we've been talking
about all the things that are happening and how we're
moving forward. But on Proadcast, we always like to take
a look back at where we've come from, so that
way we can know how to move forward, and it
helps us shine light on where we've been. So, James,
what happened this week in gay history? Well, hopefully I
(41:42):
can get through this little less clocky than that intro was. Baby.
I mean, I don't know, I kind of had a
brain fart in the middle of it, but just go
with it. Well, this one's got a lot of words
to it too, so I'm a paraphrase. Um. Let's go
back to nineteen twenty eight this week. In nineteen eighty,
(42:02):
Baby Alone Radcliffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness was the
first major novel in English that was published with a
pro lesbian theme. Now, it actually had been published in
Paris the previous July, but this was the first time
it had happened in the States, and more than twenty
thousand copies of the book were purchased. It became a
(42:23):
best seller, and it actually there they used the word
sexual inversion at the time. That's what they used for
for gay um, and in it it's actually positive that
she finds this, and there's this explicit plea of give
us the rights to our existence and think about it.
Back then, twenty people bought this book almost a hundred
years ago, and then look at where we are now
(42:45):
with storytelling. It's really cool to look back and see
one of the very first that happened. That's nice story.
Everyone loves lesbians. I love them, I loved them. We
have so many lesbian moms, and we have so many
wonderful lesbians in our life. I seriously like, I feel
(43:05):
so grateful every time I think about it. We have
Oh my god, our lesbian moms are coming on our
Christmas crewise with us next week. I can life is good,
play the music. Each week, we we'd like to shine
our big gay spotlight on people on the lgbt Q
plus community that are doing extraordinary things. James, who are
you shining your big gay spotlight on this week? This week,
(43:27):
I'm signed a big gay spotlight on somebody don't need
a spotlight because every time I see him on Instagram,
there's a spotlight on him. If you've noticed for the
first time the Balton Celtics have selected men to be
on their dance team this season, so you had to
have if you've seen any of their dances, definitely noticed
Patrick Opera And I think I'm saying his last name right.
It's either operation or opening either either way, this dude
(43:48):
is a star. He's out on that dance floor and
he is absolutely killing it. And I think about again,
like think about us being younger and looking out and
seeing this To know I used to love them dance
teams I used to love it and to a guy
out there doing and know that I could have been
a part of that. And to see how well Patrick
is doing this, um, he is shining, shining, shining, and
not only there, but I look on his Instagram all
(44:09):
the time and he's choreographing all this different stuff, like
really great choreography. So Patrick, big a spotlight on you
this week, buddy, congrats, Congrats Eureka. Anybody in your life
you'd love to shut up big lgbt Q plus spotlight
on Yes, I you know I would love to shine
a big spotlight on my drag sister, Patriona Avaans. She
(44:31):
just moved to Vegas to better her life. And she's
a beautiful black trans woman. I've known her for many,
many years, and she's really working so hard to just
put herself and set her up and set herself up
into up at her place. And I just think that
is so heroic and magical, especially in our time. And
she's been for a lot in East Tennessee and I
can't wait to see what she brings to the world
(44:52):
with her fresh start. I love to drop her Instagram
so I can follow her. Honey. Avam's Underscore Patriana. They
watch R I A N A. I'm excited to get
to Vegas and see all y'all perform. I know we
can't wait to see you in the show. Repulsed Dagary's Life.
Eureka is in in Vegas right now. Go see it. Eureka,
thank you so much for joining us. You have so
(45:13):
much stuff going on. Everyone go to Eureka's Instagram. You
can catch up on everything she's doing. I love you
guys so much. Thank you, we love you. You're super
you too, Alright, by bye, I
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