Welcome again to Unorthodox Catwalk In this installment, I will be talking about how much the queer community is obsessed with the new show “Boots”. I am warning you now, this will contain spoilers.

Boots is a show about young gay teenager Cameron Cope, ‘straight’ out of high school going from Madonna to the Marines. Why? Because duh, Ray McCaffrey (his straight best friend) is going. 

Although we obviously want them to kiss and be together and all be gay, it’s important to know that companionship was the bulk of their dynamic.

Boots is about Cope finding his place within the Marines, and exploring his newfound brotherhood with other recruits. This resonated with many members of the queer community. We love this show. And no, for the last time, it’s not because there are some hot military guys. Fine, fine, maybe it’s just a little bit. No, no it’s not why we watch the show. Are you kidding me? Just scratch the topic.

Anyway, Boots is mesmerizing. Cope having to battle between his military persona and queer identity is inspiring to many viewers. I love the rawness it shows between the conflict involving those two parts of himself. I love it because it’s true. 

In spaces where we can’t outwardly be ourselves, we are forced to suppress certain sides of ourselves in order to appease others. This is sometimes something we have to do for safety, and it always depends on the queer person if they are someone that does that. I try my best to be unapologetically myself, but situations happen. 

Cope’s constant battle to prove himself worthy in the face of drill sergeants and military captains is tenacious and unwavering. He’s been seen as a weaker link from the start from not being seen as masculine “enough.”

Sergeant Sullivan, however, is a much different story. He sees right through Cope’s facade and immediately recognizes his true identity. The question is: why does he see right through it? Because he is also gay in the Marines. Now, he definitely wouldn’t tell you that, so you have me.

Instead of supporting Cameron or telling him everything will fall into place, Sullivan pushes him. Sullivan pushes him past every limit, and Cope eats it up. 

Cope finds Sullivan inspiring. Mesmerizing. Powerful. If you’ve heard Taylor Swift’s “Father Figure,” that’s how you should think of this dynamic. 

Sullivan evokes a sort of toughness in Cope. He brings out a roughness he’s never carried. It’s definitely unhealthy. There’s no doubt about that.

As Cope pushes through bootcamp, he’s newly assigned to be a “scribe,” a role where he writes down everything said in meetings between the sergeants. Well, the scribe is assigned night shifts (also known as fire watch), and surprise: Nobody wants to do night shifts, causing brief conflicts between Cope and other recruits.

Throughout the show, however, I really love his dynamics with the other recruits at boot camp, especially his relationships with Hicks, McCaffrey, Bowman and my favorite character, Jones (we will get more into him later). 

One of my favorite scenes in the whole show is when Hicks teaches Cope how to shave in the Marines. Like, oh my god that’s so cute.

It resonates with me because a lot of young gay men have endured some type of bullying from straight men in their lives. This sort of friendship between Hicks (big muscular straight guy) and Cope is a breath of fresh air. 

However, the true breath of fresh air for me was Jones. His first appearance was in episode six, and trust me, I was obsessed. And I think we all clocked the fact that he was gay almost immediately. He left many hints for Cope. Many. 

Jones was bold. Jones owned his identity, broke the rules and played his life as if it was a game. Well, after Jones

annoys Cope enough, Jones finally asks how being gay at bootcamp is. One of my favorite parts of this whole show is this scene, where Cope just lets loose instead of being defensive, as he simply shrugs his shoulders and says it’s exhausting. 

This was a breakthrough. They talked about being gay at boot camp for a while, and it reminded the queer audience of the feeling you get when confiding in another LGBTQIA+ person. The feeling of knowing that this person understands what you’ve gone through and has your back. The feeling of pure safety. I remember the first time this happened to me, and it was the best feeling in the world.  

Jones wants to meddle with the top boss, Sullivan, which ends with Sullivan forcing Jones to mess with Cope during a bootcamp challenge. It saddens me to no end that this was what happened. After being messed with, however, Cope’s anger from every homophobic person he’s encountered and every time he’s been discriminated against builds up, and he explodes on Jones with vigorous physical attacks.

It’s so unfortunate that this anger ended up being dished out on another queer person. 

Well, the last challenge was rough, and I’ll leave it with this: they resolved this in the end of the show, with a nail-biting series of events between these two, Cope risked his life to save Jones from a gruesome fate. 

Boots ended up being one of my favorite shows of all time. The relatability in the show is what really gets us LGBTQIA+ people. And the hot Marines, I guess.