‘Our Flag Means Death’ Making LGBTQ+ Waves on the High Seas

It’s 2022 and the LGBTQ+ community would have never guessed that a show about the fictionalized lives of historically real pirates would provide the representation we’ve been desperate for for years. HBO Max’s Our Flag Means Death first dropped episodes on March 3rd, and since then the entire first season has reached high acclaim.

This little comedy about pirates quickly morphed into what is obviously a romantic comedy when the show’s two leads, Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard, and Stede Bonnet meet one another.

Not only is this a win for queer representation everywhere, but it’s also a win for those within the community who are of color or are older and never get to see themselves as the central romance on a TV show.

What’s even better about Our Flag Means Death is that Ed and Stede aren’t even the only queer faces on the show. There is another romance between Lucius and Black Pete as well as one between Jim, a canonically non-binary pirate, and Oluwande.

All of these relationships make this show one for the ages and has the LGBTQ+ community singing its praises. While shows like Schitt’s Creek took the world by storm for similar reasons, this one stands above all that for its varied queerness represented as well as the way it builds upon themes that predecessors created with much success.

Vulnerability Handled “Normally”

One of the major things the LGBTQ+ community has had to contend with for years is the act of putting queer characters through extreme situations in order to bring out vulnerable moments. There is no shortage of tragic queer stories on TV and even then they are still treated as second-rate characters.

If queer individuals are given a romantic storyline they get snippets of screen time that amount to maybe a full episode’s worth by the season’s end. With Our Flag Means Death queer audiences struggled, at first, to really believe Stede and Ed are more than just a bromance because of all the tragedy we usually get or all the queerbaiting we’ve endured.

On Our Flag Means Death Season 1 Episode 5, “The Best Revenge Is Dressing Well,” audiences get to see Ed attend an event within Stede’s world and not be mocked by Stede, but instead, he experiences acceptance, encouragement, and support.

This entire episode is the level of vulnerability between two people who are working out how they feel about each other that we’ve only ever gotten to see within heterosexual pairings.

In one of the final, most vulnerable moments of the whole episode Ed shows Stede the finest bit of him, a handkerchief, and instead of telling Ed he can’t possibly possess such a thing, like his mother had previously, Stede folds it up and places it into Ed’s pocket. He pats Ed’s chest gently and they maintain eye contact as Stede tells him he wears fine things well.

This moment is extremely important to queer audiences because we are seeing our form of love playing out on the screen in a quiet way. It’s a singular moment between just the two of them, there is no drama preceding it, and there is no tragedy surrounding it.

These two men just get to realize how they care for one another in this moment under the moonlight.

Another moment of note comes on Our Flag Means Death Season 1 Episode 9, “Act of Grace” when they finally decide to go forward and make things official. There is much talk within the fandom spaces about how they are finally in their most vulnerable state and they are both dressed down in the same clothes.

This moment is once more a solitary moment with just the two of them. It’s not there to create this great dramatic moment for an audience. Instead, they get to simply exist in their oasis of happiness and kiss for the first time and hold onto one another in the same way we’ve been seeing heterosexuals do it for years.

The beauty of these moments wouldn’t have ever been possible if not for the care and respect Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby put into these two characters. Without them, the representation probably wouldn’t have felt as genuine or real.

Non-Binary is a Non-Issue

Something else that makes Our Flag Means Death so monumental is that these characters live during a time where women occasionally posed as men in order to join life on the high seas. In this narrative, however, Jim’s story is one of necessity and honesty to who they are more than a desire to pretend.

Jim poses as a man at first because they need to hide from Spanish Jackie after killing one of her husbands. However, when it’s revealed that Jim is actually assigned female at birth, the crew talks it out and discovers that Jim simply wants to exist as Jim no one else.

This moment is profound in how much of a non-issue all of this really is. From that moment forward the entire crew doesn’t refer to Jim in the feminine or masculine. Instead, Jim is just they/them in the eyes of their found family.

Hearing these rough and tumble pirates refer to Jim as they/them is something those of us under the non-binary/trans umbrella never thought we’d hear on TV. Then to have those pronouns respected, never mocked is exactly what the community needs to change hearts and minds.

It’s not even just the crew of The Revenge who respect these pronouns. Jim’s own nan respects them as well, even when she’s mad at Jim for not completing the task they were trained for.

All of this is revealed in beautifully complex storytelling and casually slipped into conversation. There is no big announcement or fanfare around it. Jim just is and no one even bats an eye or cares.

In fact, Vico Ortiz, who plays Jim, recently did an interview with EW where they discussed how profoundly proud they are of bringing this non-binary character to life. In it, they talk about how they didn’t have to add much because there were already non-binary writers in the room.

This is the world members of the LGBTQ+ community, especially the non-binary/trans communities, dream of being reality. They would love to live in a society that doesn’t try to hurt or kill them because they just want to be who they are.

If a show about pirates, whose innate nature is to kill people who cross them, can be open to the idea of Jim as they are, then why not the world at large? This show is out here to make changes, one non-binary pirate at a time.

No Place For Homophobia

While a world without judgment or homophobia isn’t a new concept, the narrative from Our Flag Means Death expands on that and makes it even better.

First and foremost, within the narrative, people who identify as queer can be any shape, size, color, creed, or personality. It’s diversity in its purest form and we love to see it woven in and out of each new twist in the story.

There is a scene below decks with Pete and Lucius where they are caught getting it on and instead of being upset with them about being gay, they are yelled at for being lazy. Later on, we get to see Pete, who projects this image of fearlessness, vulnerably tell Lucius that he was terrified of losing him.

The jokes within the story aren’t aimed at people’s identities but rather their fears, quirks, or even the ridiculous things they say or do. Izzy tries to poke fun at some of these characters for their queerness and it simply makes everyone around him dislike him even more — no one participates in his jabs. 

It seems Our Flag Means Death has decided that while it may be 1700s high seas piracy, it doesn’t mean the characters have to act close-minded and bigoted. It allows the lack of homophobia to morph into something more. It’s a queer love story with absolutely no room for pain inflicted by outsiders. (Stede and Ed may inflict pain on each other, but that’s of their own making.)

This lack of homophobia has led to beautifully intimate moments between Lucius and Pete, in front of others as well as when they are alone, Jim and Oluwande, as well as the central story of Stede and Ed.

Allowing these moments to go on without fanfare and attention gives the queer community normalcy. It means we get to see an accurate depiction of how we live, love, and most importantly laugh.

What David Jenkins has created will most certainly be talked about for years to come. He has created a world with truly no limits and gives it the positive spin everyone, especially LGBTQ+ audiences, deserve.

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Our Flag Means Death is now streaming on HBO Max.

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