Queer dramaBootshas been given a ratings boost after thePentagon labelled the show “woke garbage”.
The show, based on Greg Cope White’s memoirThe Pink Marine, follows a closeted teenager (13 Reasons Whystar Miles Heizer) who enlists in the US marine corps. While at boot camp, with his best friend (newcomer Liam Oh), he learns that it’s deeply homophobic.
TheNetflixdrama is set in 1990, when being gay in the armed forces was still illegal. The US militaryended its banwhen president Bill Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was repealed in 2011.
Department of war press secretary Kingsley Wilson criticised the show, saying: “The US military is getting back to restoring the warrior ethos.”
Officials would “not compromise standards to satisfy an ideological agenda, unlike Netflix whose leadership consistently produces and feeds woke garbage to their audience and children”, she added.
The series now sits in second place on the global Netflix charts with 9.4 million views and 55,200,000 hours watched, beaten only byMonster: The Ed Gein Storyin the US. In the UK, it’s fourth.
‘We were on an emotional mission’
Creator Andy Parker toldVanity Fair: “I guess we have to give some credit to the Pentagon there, don’t we? I certainly never set out to make anything that was propaganda and I reject the idea that it is.
“What I would invite people to do is to watch and see how they feel about the questions the show is trying to provoke. We were on an emotional mission. There’s politics involved in all of these questions: what’s happening to trans people now, and the policies that are being inflicted on trans service members.
“What our show shines the light on is, what is the cost to the people who are affected by those policies? What is the cost to the institution itself, when they have to inflict that on service members who want to serve honourably and with dignity?”
In August, all transgender armed services personnel were dismissed under anexecutive ordersigned by president Donald Trump, who said their identities were “incompatible with active duty”.
All episodes ofBootsarestreaming on Netflix now.
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