Onboard With The Queer Crew
Our Flag Means Death is breaking barriers for LGBTQ+ representation
Looking out a window of a small plane, Lex Becdach’s leg bounces with excitement. While the business passengers on the plane have serious written all over their faces, for Becdach, this trip is all about fun. They couldn’t help but smile to themselves as they dreamed of the weekend’s events. Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle is the destination, one Becdach has been dreaming of for months.
“It almost felt surreal to actually, to finally be going,” says Becdach.
Emerald City Comic Con, or ECCC, is an annual convention where fans of comics and all things nerdy come together to celebrate as a community. This year, ECCC would feature a panel and actors from the HBO Max show Our Flag Means Death (OFMD), a “historical pirate rom-com,” according to the show’s creator and showrunner David Jenkins.
The show takes place during the Golden Age of Piracy, and tells a historically inaccurate tale of the real-life Stede Bonnet, who leaves his comfortable life with his wife and children to become a pirate. With a disapproving crew aboard his ship The Revenge, he runs into the infamous Blackbeard, the most notorious pirate of all time. As they develop an unlikely friendship, Bonnet learns what it means to become a real pirate.
The show has struck a chord with many fans and boasts a ninty three percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The show has resonated with so many fans as romantic comedy about two men that features a nonbinary character, amounting to some of the best queer representation on television in a very long time.
OFMD stars Taika Waititi as Edward “Blackbeard” Teach and Rhys Darby as Stede Bonnet. Their unlikely friendship at sea seemed queer-coded from their first meeting, but many fans, including Becdach, were skeptical. “Once it was made clear that the show was actually a romantic comedy centered on two men in their 40s, I was floored,” says Becdach. “I was worried the show was just using [Teach and Bonnet’s] witty banter as a way to make them more relatable or to get a cheap laugh in, but when the relationship actually came into fruition in the second-to-last episode, I felt such catharsis.”
The concern Becdach describes here is over queerbaiting, a term used to describe a television trope wherein shows incorporate seemingly LGBTQ+ characters into a film, television show, etc. to appeal to an LGBTQ+ audience, but never actually reveal the character’s sexuality. This trope is used often in media, and it harms members of the LBGTQ+ community because it uses signifying as a marketing ploy to pay lip service to representation without actually demonstrating it. It reinforces the idea that the actual experiences of the LGBTQ+ community don’t really matter.
This is where OFMD is different. “The characters are simply queer without explanation,” says Becdah. “There’s no coming out or having to explain themselves. It’s the norm and it’s matter-of-fact. That’s all there is to it. Queer stories don’t have to focus solely on the characters identifying as queer.”
The characters are simply queer without explanation.
Becdach trekked to Seattle for ECCC’S OFMD panel. They had hopes of meeting other fans of the show and some of the show’s stars. OFMD has created quite a community online, especially on Twitter. It was at this convention that Becdach got to meet some of their Twitter friends in real life. “There were at least a dozen people who I got to meet in person for the first time,” says Becdach. “We met on Twitter through our shared love of the show.”
Many fans of OFMD identify as LGBTQ+, including Becdach, who identifies as nonbinary and bisexual and uses they/them pronouns. This show has given fans such a Becdach a sense of belonging, seeing themselves represented on screen, something that is unfortunately not very common on television right now. Every year, GLAAD, formerly known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, publishes an annual study called Where We Are on TV Report. The report “analyzes the number of LGBTQ characters on primetime scripted series on broadcast networks, primetime scripted series on cable networks and scripted series on streaming services for the 2022–2023 TV season.”
This year’s report, published in March, showed a six-percent decrease in LGBTQ+ characters, citing show cancellations as one of the biggest killers of LGBTQ+ characters. HBO Max, which airs OFMD, was a leader of LGBTQ+ characters last year. The network though, has canceled many LGBTQ+ shows for this upcoming television season. After months of waiting, fans felt a sigh of relief when OFMD was finally renewed for a second season last June. The new season is slated to premiere in the summer, but its future beyond that is uncertain.
Thirty-five hundred OFMD fans, or the crew, as they are lovingly called by the show’s cast and creative team, showed up to ECCC along with Becdach among them. At the convention, they had the opportunity to attend a meet and greet with Rhys Darby, aka Stede Bonnet, and take a photo. For their shot, Becdach wears a shirt with Darby’s face on it, one of the multiple OFMD shirts they brought with them on their trip.
In addition to Darby, they also had the opportunity to meet Vico Ortiz, who plays Jim on the show. Jim is nonbinary. When that is revealed on the show, the other characters have a brief discussion about it and then everyone just moves on, highlighting the appealing metaphor of a pirate ship as a safe space. In the show, Jim is allowed to take up space as a nonbinary person and it isn’t the only thing that makes up their identity.
“[Ortiz] plays a nonbinary character who is so strong, and being nonbinary myself, it was wonderful being able to meet them and thank them for their work,” says Becdach. “Meeting them meant a lot.”
At the end of ECCC, Darby posted a TikTok that shows himself, Ortiz, and Samba Schutte, another actor from the show, just moments before they stepped in front of the crew in attendance. They are all bouncing with excitement, Ortiz singing The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, the show’s unofficial theme song due to its use in one of the episodes. As they walk on stage, the room is packed with fans who scream in excitement. It’s plain to see just how much these actors and this show mean to these fans.
The OFMD fans are a powerful presence on social media, often making the show trend on Twitter to discuss fanfiction and fanart about the show. If you search “OFMD” on Twitter, you are met with thousands of hand drawn images by fans of their favorite characters, many of which depict Bonnet and Teach together.
“The OFMD fandom is insane in such a wonderful way,” says Becdach. “I’ve never been a part of a community as uplifting as this one. I feel more validated in my identity after meeting and getting to know so many people like me.” Both shirts that Becdach wore to ECCC were made by fellow members of the OFMD crew. “We all rally around each other and encourage each other. It’s honestly very beautiful.”
I’ve never been a part of a community as uplifting as this one. I feel more validated in my identity after meeting and getting to know so many people like me.
With anti-LGBTQ+ legislation rising around the country and queer representation on television decreasing, OFMD is crucial to fans such Becdach right now. This year alone, 512 anti-trans bills have been introduced in 49 of the 50 states. Of those bills, 45 of them have passed, with 370 bills still active in US Courts. These bills will block trans people across the United States from existing, making access to gender affirming care near impossible.
“There are more anti-trans bills going around this country than ever, and it is so important for people to be exposed to what our community is and how beautiful of people we are,” says Becdach. “People run away from things that they don’t understand, and I think that representation can keep some of those bills from coming into fruition.”
While one show cannot change the anti-trans rhetoric in the United States, it can certainly give fans hope. OFMD is an escape from the real world to a place where LGBTQ+ people get to exist unapologetically. “Our Flag Means Death celebrates queer joy,” says Becdach. “It allows queer people to be so many things– It allows them to be vulnerable. It allows them to be mean. It allows them to be messy. It allows them to be romantic. It allows them to be funny, witty, and wonderful. It is exactly the type of television that we need.”
People run away from things that they don’t understand, and I think that representation can keep some of those bills from coming into fruition.
