Read accepted and also disclosed that she was a woman. Read and Bonny both disguised themselves as men until eventually Bonny confessed she was a woman to Read and expressed interest in her. Sexism was wide spread in the pirate community, but I was able to find some information on one lesbian pirate pair, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. This caused a lot of dissatisfaction in the crew, but was not that uncommon. Shelvocke promoted a young pirate to first mate, even though he was unqualified, because of their relationship. There is one story about privateer, George Shelvocke. They would trade their company for food, stability, board, and advancement in the crew. On a darker note, sometimes young pirates would trade sexual favors and matelotage in order to establish themselves in the pirate world. Sometimes this was an economic decision, like a will, where you entrusted your matelot to divvy out your belonging to your wife, children, and friends, and your matelot got to keep the rest of your fortune. Matelots could take punishments for each other, and most fought side by side If one partner died, their matelot would have ownership of all their possessions. A partner was called your matelot, which can be interpreted as bunkmate. These unions could range in meaning (fraternal, platonic, romantic, etc.) but were respected among most pirate crews. Pirates had their own form of civil union called matelotage. This drew in a lot of queer men to piracy. At the time, men on ship knew more about their crew mates than even their wives and children on land. Relations between men was often encouraged. Queer relationships at sea were not uncommon during the Golden Era of Piracy (1650-1730s). Some pirates went as far as baptisms in sea water, new names, and completely leaving behind their past identities. Piracy however was known for rejecting societal standards and expectations. Same sex relationships were highly stigmatized on land and illegal in most places. The best way to begin this article is by establishing the social context for the time. Be mindful of the difficult topics this article includes. This is my warning: while this story sounds very funny, and has some fun moments, there is a discussion of sexism and prostitution. I had set out to write a light hearted story about gay pirates this week however, along my journey, I found out some pretty horrible information about pirates.