Guest post by "Kitten" Well, everything goes out the window when we're talking about PIRATES! Tho, we're always being fed false stories about pirates - generally, we either hear about the famous privateers, which were captained by wealthy entitled men, acting as de facto navies, crewed by men who thought of themselves as military soldiers; or the absolute, murderous cutthroats. In reality, most pirates were people who'd been driven to the sea, and had no other recourse...the Irish female pirate captain, Grania, and her people were defending their coast from British invaders. The "buccaneers," lived and worked on Carribean Islands, but were forced off, and became pirates to survive. There were many independent strait women on pirate ships, and many LGBTQ people...because that was one of the few places where those people could live and maintain their true identities. Their stories are mostly lost to history, because, no writer at that time could've gotten a pirate history book published if it included independent women, and LGBTQ folk...those things weren't considered "proper" subjects to write about, so they simply weren't, irregardless of historical accuracy. In many ways, things really haven't changed...for instance, how many LGBTQ people know that trans women had a large role in founding Gay Pride?
