AJ: Absolutely. I was surprised, because from the first episode, they were dragging you. As the backstory of what had happened between you and Abhora came out, it was understandable. But then you apologized profusely for it, and they just kept dragging you, and I’m glad that it seemed to become a redemptive thing for you - not only winning Dragula, but the other girls seemed to really support you by the end, even Abhora.

BP: When that happened, and I got the show, out of all the girls there, I was most excited to see Abhora. I wanted to compete with the best that I knew of at the time. I wanted to have good competition. I know this bitch, I was on cast with this bitch, and this bitch is sickening - she’s a monster.

I knew that [Abohora] had a lot of animosity towards me, and it was mostly because of the show that we were on cast together. I don’t want to spill tea. I want to be respectful. But I had to convince the world who I was [on Dragula]. I had to keep my head down, and it really fucked me up. The second episode was a great example of that. I was really in my head. If I put Biqtch Puddin’ in a western world, she would be a fucking whore. But I didn’t do that. I was like, I need to be this fucking drowned bitch monster that the townspeople drowned in the well, and she was mad about it and coming back to kill everyone, which, no - I should’ve just been over it. I was in my head about the competition, but once I got out of that - you saw the result. I couldn’t have pulled myself out that if it wasn’t for that grueling, sorority-esque mentality that Atlanta gave me. It prepped me for a situation like that. That’s why I’m grateful for how Atlanta raises its queens, because it helped me deal with shit like that. If there had been another girl in that situation, she would have cracked.

AJ: That’s one of the things that I feel helped save you.

BP: Yeah. I was bullied throughout my life, being a Navy brat. And I was a huge, flaming undercover faggot. From the jump, I tried to fight it so long, and people were calling me faggot in 5th, 6th grade, and I didn’t even know what that meant. I was always the new kid in school every two years. I was just an easy target. I thought I had dealt with bullying my whole life in different ways, and I thought, “This is the time. I’m on a show with monsters. We’re queer as fuck - it’s the most queer shit on television right now. If anything, this is a safe place.” And it was the exact opposite. It was the same situation, but here. And I think that the universe prepped me for this in a weird way - putting me through [all this] bullying. I would love to live in a world where I can wear lipstick and go to the club and not have my [identity] questioned. I just want the next generation to not have to be questioned...if you want to wear a dress on a Tuesday, then wear a fucking dress on a Tuesday. It doesn’t fucking matter.