One of the most exciting social additions to the Sea of Thieves calendar is the annual celebration of LGBTQIA+ Pride Month. As part of this, we reached out to three members of one of our newest Affiliate Alliance additions, The Pride Brigade – a social space created and curated to celebrate diversity and inclusion within our community, giving pirates a safe space to be themselves and be proud of who they are.
So we’ll now hand over to Div_And_Inc, Zom8ie and Serve_with_Ice from The Pride Brigade, who are taking the time to discuss not only their community but the important history of Pride Month, and why it’s still important to make space for these conversations and activities every year!
Article 1 of the Sea of Thieves Pirate Code states “The Sea Calls to Us All”. This hugely resonates with the purposes of LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, and the Rare team have always been proud to present their wonderful pirate adventure world as a place where everybody is free to be themselves without the risk of unfair treatment, discrimination or abuse. The freedom of expression that every player has on the Sea of Thieves is a direct example of this, with anyone able to enjoy this world in their own way – be that how they play the game, dress their pirate, decorate their ship or communicate with crewmates and strangers they meet on the waves.
Proud pirates in Sea of Thieves (in participating territories) can now also represent Pride in game with the Progress Pride Flag – find out more in June’s This Month in SoT article. This flag, in its current 2021 iteration, includes the original six colours of the Pride flag representing the LGBTQIA+ community. The triangular colours now included on the left were added to represent the importance of issues affecting BIPOC, transgender, non-binary and intersex people.
LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, held in June every year, is a worldwide observance and celebration, commemorating many decades of struggles amongst the LGBTQIA+ community for civil rights and social acceptance. It also signifies the ever-growing pursuit of equal rights for everyone, regardless of who they love or how they identify.
Pride began in 1969 in New York City’s Greenwich Village in protest against discriminatory treatment and social injustice. It stood as a pivotal moment in history when members of the LGBTQIA+ community were finally empowered enough to say “we deserve to be treated equally and with respect”. Since then, LGBTQIA+ Pride has evolved into a rich, vibrant global celebration of diversity, inclusivity, respect and love. All the while, it never fails to note the importance of highlighting parts of the world where the LGBTQIA+ community still face dehumanisation, discrimination, persecution and abuse.
It’s also important to highlight that while LGBTQIA+ Pride Month is an opportunity to show loud and colourful support within the LGBTQIA+ community and acceptance of everyone’s individual expression, the celebration of Pride is not exclusive. This is seen in the support given by the fiercest of allies who sit outside the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, and is hugely welcomed around the world as it further demonstrates Pride as a true celebration of inclusion, respect, authenticity, expression and love.
Pride is not only a celebration but continues to be a global protest to show that, though inclusivity has come so far in many parts of the world, there is still a long way to go in ensuring LGBTQIA+ people are safe from exclusion, violence, oppression and abuse. Sea of Thieves recognises that Pride is a wonderful event platform to help educate all of us on the struggles still faced by the community today, as well as making it a safer place for all.
“The Sea Unites Us as One Community” is another article of the Pirate Code that echoes the true sentiment of Pride Month. While Pride Month highlights the struggles faced by the LGBTQIA+ community around the world and online, Pride also stands for everyone being equal, standing together in times of hardship and times of joy. Sea of Thieves offers just that, with a chance to meet new people every time you set sail and work together on group adventures, discovering hidden secrets and embarking on beautiful examples of community-focused gameplay.
Image credit: divandinc on Bluesky
The Sea of Thieves community is a rich combination of pirates from all over the world representing many ethnicities, backgrounds, sexualities and gender identities. The game is designed for all play styles, capabilities and identities to be able to step into a fully inclusive world and adventure with their friends, while also being able to make new friends around the globe.
As a result of this inclusive message within the Pirate Code, a new Sea of Thieves Affiliate Alliance community has grown: The Pride Brigade. This began over three years ago as a small group of LGBTQIA+ pirates learning to play Sea of Thieves for the first time. We soon began to expand with the intention of creating a safe space for all the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as everyone outside the community who would call themselves an ‘ally’.
Through a mutual love of this open-world pirate adventure game, our community has expanded exponentially and has allowed us to support people from all over the world in feeling safe and celebrated as their authentic selves. Our community champions education over intimidation, where kindness, understanding and patience are considered the most important aspects of inclusivity. We host content creators, artists, gamers, musicians and inclusivity experts, all of whom champion the ethos that “everyone deserves to be treated equally and kindly, regardless of who they are or how they identify”.
Now established as one of the newest Sea of Thieves Affiliate Alliance communities in June 2025, we hope to further increase our Pride message and offer many more players a welcoming and safe space, a chance to meet new pirates to sail with safely and a platform to stand proudly and be themselves.
As the celebrations continue through June and beyond, let us all come together as one community and set sail for new horizons as our authentic selves, with nothing but kindness and adventure in our hearts. Happy Pride to everyone. All shall sail together!