you better you better you bet

And then a week passes. And your boss yet again goes "oh we're getting another member." Oh worm? What poor soul has been recruited this ti-

I think it’s important for me to talk about how much of an impact Black Sails has had on me personally. I can honestly say that as a queer person, it has helped me understand myself better than anything else- either in fiction or real life.

I have known I was gay since I was 14, and always felt fairly neutral about it. My family is all very liberal, and the only reason I never came out was because it was just a conversation I didn’t feel like having. At least I told myself that.

When I finished watching the last episode of Black Sails, I went immediately to bed. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, it was because I didn’t want my parents to see how much I cried after seeing James and Thomas’ reunion- I thought it would show too much.

I was shocked at myself for this response. I had no reason whatsoever to feel that way, so why did I? As my Black Sails obsession took off over the next few weeks, my thoughts kept coming back to episode 2.05. The inscription in Meditations, and what Miranda said to Flint about the voice in his head- those words resonated with me, and disturbed me. They made me question myself. Was there internalized shame that I too had been unconscious of all this time?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there was. I got way too attached to the narrative way too fast to deny it any longer. As I faced that, it made me angry. It made me angry at society for still making me feel like I had to hide, but more importantly, it made me angry at myself. I realized how incredibly privileged I am for being born in a time and place where I can truly be open without fear, and yet all this time I’ve chosen to be silent anyway. It sounds silly that a fictional pirate did this, but Flint’s story awoke something in me. It made me feel like I owed it to history to come out- to be in the light on behalf of centuries of people forced into the shadows.

When I came out to my parents, my heart was pounding- I was absolutely terrified. In the end, the only reason I was able to go through with it was because of the three words I repeated to myself.

Know No Shame.

The Mike Ehrmantraut subplot: