Rubashkyn was born in Colombia to a Ukrainian Jewish mother who had moved there in the 1970s. She was assigned and raised male but born with an intersex condition known as Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. In 2011 Rubashkyn obtained her degree in pharmacy and chemistry at the National University of Colombia., after studying molecular biology in the University of Granada she was granted a scholarship to develop postgraduate studies in public health at the Taipei Medical University, and started at the same time her gender transition in Taiwan. Within a year, hormone replacement therapy changed Rubashkyn's physical appearance dramatically due to her intersex condition, and the Taiwanese immigration authorities required her to update her passport at the closest Colombian consulate before she could begin her second year of master's studies. She travelled to Hong Kong to do so, but when she arrived at Hong Kong International Airport's immigration facility, she was detained for over eight months in several detention and refugee centres because of her ambiguous legal condition. suffering from abusive mistreatment and constant sexual abuse and harassment in several of the reclusion centres she lived. She was also restrained in a psychiatric ward of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kowloon, caused by an attempted suicide, after being constantly mistreated and sexually abused. Unable to seek asylum to be granted protection as a refugee in Hong Kong due to that government not having ratified the UN Refugee Convention, she faced deportation, and suffered severe mistreatment in the airport's detention centre. Rubashkyn currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand, where she was eventually granted asylum as a refugee. Rubashkyn learned many languages fluently in the refugee centers she lived during 2012, 2013 and 2014. She remained stateless until 3 April 2018, when she was granted with New Zealand citizenship based on her exceptional circumstances
Statelessness
In 2013, the UN sought another country to resettle Eliana because of the lack of protections for LGBT people and refugees in Hong Kong. She refused to contact her home embassy to prevent deportation because of the lack of diplomatic assistance they offered and Eliana became stateless de facto from 30 October 2012. Eliana's position as a refugee limited the contact she could have with authorities from the governments of Colombia.
Marriage
On 2 June 2015, Rubashkyn was married in New Zealand to an Israeli man named Itamar but was forced to use her birth name of Luis Alexander on the marriage registration rather than Eliana.
International response
With the help of Amnesty International and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, she was granted refugee status. However, because Hong Kong is not a signatory of the 1951 refugee convention, it did not recognise her as a refugee and sought to deport her to Colombia. Her case drew international attention, particularly in Southeast Asia and Colombia, where transgender and intersex people are often persecuted. Her case was also noted in New Zealand, a country known for its stance on equality for LGBT people. On 16 December 2013, the UN passed a resolution recognising Rubashkyn as woman under the UNHCR refugee system. She became the first gender diverse person recognised as a woman in China or Hong Kong without having undergone a sex reassignment surgery. In May 2014, New Zealand accepted Rubashkyn as a refugee and granted her asylum, extending a universal recognition of her gender. Her case was the first in the world in which the gender identity of a person was recognised internationally. A CNN story about her struggle and a short documentary about her life in Hong Kong won a GLAAD Media Award in May 2015.
New Zealand citizenship
After six years of statelessness in April 2018, the government of New Zealand on behalf of the Ministry of Internal Affairs granted the New Zealand citizenship based on her exceptional and unique circumstances.
