June is Pride Month, and the perfect time to celebrate all members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Pride occurs in June to commemorate the Stonewall riots, a multi-day opposition against police who were trying to arrest members of the LGBTQ community, especially trans and POC people. They fought back instead, and without this moment in LGBTQ history, things could be very different today. The LGBTQ community should be supported and uplifted year-round, but Pride is a time to celebrate, reflect, and see how much more work there is to be done.
This Pride month, Game ZXC sat down with different LGBTQ streamers across Twitch to celebrate their communities and give viewers some new streamers to follow on the platform. Next up in the Pride month lineup is JeffBrutlag, an LGBTQ streamer who’s been on Twitch for about four years now. Jeff may not have started content creation on Twitch, but he’s found and cultivated a community he loves interacting with.
Inspiration Behind Jeff’s Brand
Jeff has been streaming since April 2017. Originally, they got into streaming because they were doing content creation on YouTube, but didn’t see the engagement they wanted out of the channel. He’d always known about Twitch and kept his eye on it, especially because he’s been gaming since he was five years old.
When YouTube wasn’t going the way he envisioned, that was when Jeff decided to change gears. Once they had the proper hardware to stream, they turned on their PS4 with a direct Twitch feed and started streaming. It also helped that they had a friend who had been on Twitch for years at the time, as she encouraged them to try it.
Really, it's just about hitting that "going live" button. Whatever you have with you, just hit go live and see what happens.
As for the JeffBrutlag brand, Jeff says he likes to think of his brand in the same way he wants his streams to feel. It’s a mix of people hanging out and anime aesthetics, specifically magical ones, that make people feel safe in the space they’re in. Jeff works hard to make sure that their community comes across as a safe space for everyone, especially those in the LGBT community because it can be difficult to find places online that are welcoming.
I always picture us just being in this cute little coffee shop full of low-key anime aesthetics, like Sailor Moon, like some magical stuff around, and just a nice safe place for people to be.
Sailor Moon is a big part of Jeff’s aesthetic, and his favorite Sailor Scout is probably between Pluto and Venus. They love Sailor Pluto because of her “regal and queen-like” presence, but Sailor Venus is an admirable leader who has a “fun way of getting people together.”
Jeff’s Top Games To Stream Or Play Offline
Offline, Jeff said he’s been playing a lot of Final Fantasy 14. Jeff’s history with Final Fantasy goes way back to when they first started gaming, so Final Fantasy 14, is more like a “happy place” game than anything else. As much as Jeff loves the Final Fantasy games, he knows that it might not translate to streaming very well because he’d be so relaxed and “zen.”
Online, however, Jeff finds that there’s not a particular game they find themselves streaming the most. What tends to do well is story-driven games, though the story may not be the primary goal of the game. He also plays things like Simulacra and GeoGuessr because they get the community involved and either theorize about the plot or can chime in about how they recognize a certain location. Additionally, open-world, choice-driven games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect are often found on their channel, especially because of the same-sex romances and how well they’re written.
When I see that community interaction is when I know that I'm also enjoying it, because I've had so many games I'm obsessed with but it doesn't resonate the same with my community. So I have to think about that and rework what I want to bring to them. . . Anything that can get everybody involved is so exciting to me.
How Jeff Navigates Twitch and Social Media
Jeff’s favorite part of being a Twitch streamer, unsurprisingly, is their community. He said that while he can have fun on stream with a game, it’s much more exciting when the community is involved and also having fun. Jeff also knows how much effort they’ve put into cultivating their community and making it a safe place for everyone involved, so it’s “incredibly humbling” to have people who say Jeff’s stream is one of their favorite places to be.
... to even feel like I'm someone's favorite place on the platform just blows my mind. It's incredibly humbling to feel like I've done that work, and it's so validating to hear them say that because it makes me realize I've done that work. It becomes one of those times where I can't help but be proud of myself.
Jeff is Latinx but says that their identity hasn’t really affected how they stream, though they realize this is probably because they’re white-passing. He thinks part of why he opened up about being Latinx was due to his community and how supported he feels by them. It also opened up a dialogue with their viewers to talk about similar experiences as Latinx people.
It definitely has not been a hindrance, and knowing what I know about white privilege, I'm sure that's part of it. It is just because I do look white, but I think it's definitely helped in educating people about ethnicity versus race and you can't just assume things based on how someone looks.
Existing on the internet can also come with some trolls as well, but Jeff has a pretty good solution when those people start coming around but also knows trolls are pretty low-effort from the start. According to Jeff, trolls don’t really know what to say anymore, whether it’s about being a gay person or them wearing makeup on stream. He isn’t bothered by trolls coming after him, but it becomes a different situation when they start coming for other marginalized identities he doesn’t identify as.
I don't want this to affect the community or [make them feel like] it's now an unsafe place. I think part of doing that is showing what little power they can actually have over you, so that way they can see "oh, these are just the words of somebody that I don't have a face to, they shouldn't be able to hurt me."
What Jeff Does On Twitch
To Jeff, the most difficult thing about being a Twitch streamer is time—more specifically, having enough of it. Twitch takes a lot of time and energy, and sometimes even really cool ideas have to be pushed to the backburner because Jeff knows there just isn’t enough of either of those things. Additionally, Jeff said that after streaming for a while, people tend to have certain expectations of their own streams, and if a new idea doesn’t hit that quality it can be discouraging.
To break out of this, though, Jeff believes that if someone has a project idea, they should just go for it. They affirmed that no one can really predict what will happen, so it’s best to take the shot and see where it leads. It’s taken a lot of time for Jeff to get to that place, but it’s a better alternative than constantly shooting down new ideas out of fear or lack of time.
Jeff can be found on Instagram, Twitter, and Twitch at JeffBrutlag. He also writes when he’s not streaming, with a special interest in creative nonfiction. On Twitch, their streams are the definition of cozy, so anyone looking to join a community full of magical anime aesthetics specifically created to be a welcoming environment, Jeff’s Twitch streams may be the perfect place to go.