For Biqtch Puddin’ (aka Steven Glen Diehl), video games are more than just a hobby, they’re a passion: one that carried them through years of pain and from which they drew inspiration when they crafted their drag identity. It’s a persona that would go on to win season two of the popular drag competition series Dragula. But that’s not all: for Biqtch, games are also a business that helped carry them through the pandemic, thanks to their highly popular Twitch channel boasting nearly 30,000 followers.
All of this made them a perfect fit to participate in Gayming Magazine’s Gayming Live Online Event, which is a three-day festival of queer geekery, from AAA games to indies, anime, and drag with guests including Rock M Sakura, Juice Boxx, Jaremi Carey, and Erika Klash. Attendees can tune in via Twitch for the panel discussions and the Main Stage events from September 9 through September 11.
Gayming Magazine approached me over the Panini [pandemic] to do a live gaming show on Twitch, where I founded the digital drag show over COVID, for those that don’t know, and we kind of gave all the drag artists a check during the Panini,” Biqtch tells PRIDE. “A lot of people were inspired by that to create their own shows. But at the tail end, we got to collaborate with Xbox, Sega, and 2K Games. It was kind of really amazing to work with those companies in that capacity, especially as a person who’s always inspired by video games in their art, so it was really great. And then they were approaching me about doing this and I had to jump on board. It was really awesome.”
It’s the culmination of a lifelong love of gaming that began as a child playing games with their family. “This is kind of a touchy subject for me, but I first got introduced to video games by my Uncle Tom. [He] had a PlayStation 1 and we went over, I think, for a Thanksgiving or Christmas situation. I don’t remember, maybe it was summer vacation. We went up to my grandma’s house often. And on the [PS1] he had a demo disc...and on that disc was Crash Bandicoot, Croc, Jet Moto, and then there was Tekken 2.”
“There’s two playable characters, Lei Wulong and Jun Kazama, and I was picking the girl character and my brother’s picking the boy character and I kept doing cartwheels on repeat,” Biqtch recalls. “We played it so much like that; just that one round of those two characters. [Uncle Tom] went out the next day and bought the game for us so we could play the game on repeat, which was great. He sadly passed away about a year ago.”
Biqtch shared that although Tom recently passed, his legacy lives on in both these memories and their continued love of gaming. And it came at just the right time when they were not only processing their queerness, but also looking for consistency and escape. “Games gave me the tools to survive my queerness growing up because I moved around a lot,” Biqtch shares. “I was a military brat. So every time I would go home after being bullied or whatever, I would just lose myself into the wonderful world of video games and kind of process and [they’d] be a kind of therapeutic session for me, especially fighting games, because I could pick these fabulous women characters who were, like, half-naked Lee or whatever.”
Video games would again play a role for Biqtch when they began doing drag, which surprisingly started as a fluke one-off. “When I first started doing drag, it was at Savannah College of Art and Design, and I did it as a one-off, it was a charity event. But my professors were like, ‘you’ve got to do drag,’ and I was like, ‘I didn’t go to college to be a drag queen.’ And then now it’s 10 years later and I’m a drag queen who went to college to be a drag queen,” they joke.
“My good friend Timothy was like, oh my god, you’re doing drag, you should come to my drag show. I found out her stage name was Chiara...and she walked out looking like a Mortal Kombat character. And she can move like a Mortal Kombat character. That’s when all the lights went on and I was like, ‘I can combine my favorite things in a blender and that could be dragged.’ And that’s what really got me excited too.”
When it came time to create Biqtch Puddin’, they looked to some of their favorite characters over the years for inspiration. “Poison from Final Fight slash Street Fighter, I loved her aesthetically. And then I found out she’s trans. And I was like, oh, this is even better. She’s part of the family. That’s awesome. She’s wearing like, just basically dental floss cut-off shorts and a white top — with pink hair and a hat and a whip — and she’s bossing the dudes around. And her color palette’s the trans colors, too, which is kind of fucking cool.”
Games were also a place that allowed Biqtch to explore gender, because the character designs, particularly in fighting games, are explorations in genderfuck, whether intentional on the designer’s part or not. For the nonbinary Biqtch, seeing these gender-nonconforming characters was powerful. “I think [games made] it easier for me to accept or relax. I realized that when I was playing, I think it was an easier way for me to grasp that concept because games already [introduced me to it] a long while beforehand.”
Today Biqtch, through their Twitch presence, can be that role model for queer kids that they would’ve loved to have had growing up. And they hope that their ability to be themselves, whatever that looks like, is inspiring. “I remember going to Hot Topic and looking across at the girls’ side of the room and being like, I want to wear that T-shirt. And I proudly bought that shit and I wore it for Pride. I probably looked crazy as hell. I looked crazy and I felt confident.”
They want that same sense of freedom for others. “Even if you’re not feeling comfortable, just jump in the pool. Life is so short, literally, just get your ass up and jump in that pool,” they insist. “If you want to cosplay Ivy from SoulCalibur, have your titties out with a sword, and you’re a dude, just do it.”
That’s not to say they haven’t faced their share of bullying, whether that was as a kid in school, from online trolls on Twitch, or very memorably on reality TV. The first episode in season two of Dragula featured an incredibly intense and drawn-out scene between Biqtch and their competitors that saw them become the target of harsh criticism from multiple queens. It came across like a gang-up, but Biqtch kept their cool and handled it all with grace. Sadly, a lifetime of dealing with bullies prepared them for that moment.
“Maybe that’s why sometimes I’m funny because I beat them to the punch line. Or not,” they ponder. “But it’s not easy. I’m not gonna lie to you. That’s not an easy thing to do every time and it’s hard to get up there and have the mic and like, you know, be on stream and deal with someone saying something hateful, but I know that I want to live this life because it’s authentically me. I’m being authentically myself.”
Ultimately, Biqtch’s Dragula story had a happy ending as they got the satisfaction of coming out on top and winning the coveted title of the World’s Next Drag Supermonster. The question is, would they ever return should the series ever do a season of Titans (Dragula’s version of a Drag Race All Stars series)? “If I would come back into the fold, I would want winners to be involved. I won my season and I would like winners to be involved,” they say. “If they ever do something like that, I think it would just be great to watch our faves come back and kill each other.”
As for who they’d like to compete against this time, Biqtch says they’d love to see all the winners return: Vander Von Odd, Landon Cider, Saint, and Dahli, although they’d happily compete against their season two sisters again as well.
While fans wait with crossed fingers and bated breath that this will one day come true, in the meantime they can enjoy plenty of Biqtch content on their Twitch channel, and this weekend at Gayming Online Live they’ll be hosting “Slayers – a queer horror and games panel” with Erika Klash and voice actor Maggie Robertson. Then on Sunday, they’ll be participating in a Saints Row let’s play followed by an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session. It’s an event that gaymers and Biqtch Puddin’ fans won’t want to miss.
Watch PRIDE’s full interview with Biqtch Puddin’ below.
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