‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ star Alaska confronts gender and anti-gay hecklers in memoir – NBC News
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” superstar Alaska has advice for young drag queens looking to win the competition series that has become a global phenomenon and turned dozens of nightclub performers into international celebrities: “Don’t do it.”
In a conversation with NBC News about her new memoir — “My Name’s Yours, What’s Alaska?” — the “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” winner reveals that she preferred filming the fifth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” in which she lost in the final round.
“It’s better to not win,” said Alaska, 36, whose offstage name is Justin Andrew Honard. “There was a huge amount of pressure externally and also on myself, and that made me kind of freak out, which then happened on TV. But I won — I won a shiny hat.”
Aside from delving into her on-screen meltdowns, Alaska’s new book, published Tuesday, details the real-world drama that landed her among drag royalty.
Alaska writes that from a young age, she was always drawn to the beauty of women and “feminine things.” But as she discovered her love for Barbie dolls, Catwoman and long flowing hair, she discovered that her “natural instincts were considered wrong,” she writes.
“If you think about gender, it’s absurd,” she said. “It’s ridiculous that we’re designated to wear certain types of cloth and fabric on our bodies, and if we wear the wrong ones, then we’re like ostracized or looked at funny or beat up or killed or put in jail depending on where you are and when you’re doing it.”
In the memoir, Alaska details what life is like living with that kind of target on your back. Throughout the book, she cites several instances she was targeted on the street for wearing drag, including one episode in which a group of hecklers beat and bloodied her friend.
“I wish that I could time travel and go back and say, ‘Why don’t go over and have a beer with these guys and show them who we are, up-close?’” she said, reflecting on the incident. “But that’s why things like ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ are so major and so important, because they calmly show you what this world of drag is, what the LGBTQ+ community is in an inviting way, and it educates people and let’s them know what we’re about and that like you shouldn’t be scared or mortified, and that you shouldn’t call us names on the street.”
Alaska also delves into the toll drag took on her love life throughout the book. She recalls a former boyfriend in her earlier days of performing, who said he would not be “physically attracted” to her if she competed in a local drag competition. After unexpectedly winning the competition, they never spoke again, she writes.
“I was still so compelled to drag that I was like, ‘I don’t care if I ever get laid again. This is something I have to do for myself,’” she said, concerning the breakup. “And what ended up happening, jumping off that sort of ledge, it was really liberating for me … It was definitely facing down that fear, but it was really rewarding to do that.”
On her better-known relationship with fellow “Drag Race” winner Sharon Needles, whose offstage name is Aaron Coady, Alaska writes in length about their troubles, even before fame and money entered the relationship.
“This was the Sharon Show, and everyone else was just a secondary character,” she writes. “My life was to be all about Sharon and what she wanted. And if I wanted to keep things smooth, I better surrender to that. Sharon owned me.”
Alaska also touches upon some of her own performances that evoked “racist and transphobic slurs” throughout the book, which she apologized for last year on Twitter.
“You can’t just talk about the good stuff, the great stuff. You have to talk about the times when I was stupid and when I made mistakes,” she said. “And something that I hope that people who read the book can take away from it, is that it is possible to learn from those mistakes and to try to make the world a better place.”
Asked if Needles has read the book, Alaska said that she’s unsure but revealed that she sent her a copy, adding, “She’ll probably be glad that I’m talking about her.”
Since winning “All Stars” in 2016, Alaska has recorded several studio albums and launched a hit podcast, “Race Chaser,” where she and fellow “Drag Race” star Willam Belli dissect episodes of the show. Next year, she will be performing her upcoming album, “Red 4 Filth,” in her first-ever headlining tour of North America.
She said the new album will have sounds of the ‘90s and early 2000s, and much like any juicy memoir “it’ll be like going on a time traveling journey.”