10 #2
Angel came out gay at Christmas when she brought her girlfriend home. No big deal to us, except she had sworn she was straight. Claire, the other twin who does not look like the two of us, well, she came out when she was what, 14.
My parents never batted an eyelash.
Guys, if you want to come out queer to your family, we do rent our parents from time to time. Expensive, but worth the money.
Back to Lowri, Lowri swears on twenty stacks of Bibles that she is straight. Angel is convinced that Lowri is a closeted lesbian, and never lets up on her.
What was fascinating to watch was how Lowri dealt with it. By Friday, I agree with Angel, Lowri is not straight, never has been, but is reacting in a conservative family to having an older gay brother, even if the brother’s significant other is a member of the House of Lords.
For you uneducated Americanos, that means a hereditary senator of sorts. Not exactly right, but close enough.
Regardless. We finished up the session on Sunday, and the two of us flew back to Grove City.
We had to stop in Teterboro first for immigration; Grove City is not exactly an international airport.
I could fly directly in under the boy Shannon passport, but the air crew and Lowri needed immigration.
I also was flying under a British passport.
This all gets so fucking confusing.
I will be honest, if it stays this complicated, Dad said that he could get an American passport for me if I did some stuff and we did a name/gender change. But that would mean I would only be girl Shannon.
I really did not know at the time. I never expected my life to get this confusing.
Now for Dubai, they want me to travel as a boy, Shannon, but in femme.
By entering the UAE as a male, they can take the swim photos.
If I were to enter as a female, they would, but they could get into really serious trouble if questioned.
Life simply should not be this difficult.
Since we arrived so late, we went to the Rho house and were greeted by all of my sisters.
Now, this is where Lowri is really getting confused.
Because for these ladies, I am a female, and they refuse to think that I might be otherwise, even though they damn well know I am a non operative transgender in the University system.
For this society, for all social programs associated with the University, since I am registered as a female student, socially I have to be treated as a female student.
About two or three years ago, there was a really bad incident here.
One of the football players, a freshman but a starter, a kicker who had played professional soccer for two years, named Josh, transitioned with the support of his teammates after the first term ended, and over Christmas came back as Karin.
And under the rules for the league, Karin, since she started playing as Josh, could play varsity football for Mercer University.
Six weeks later, Karin was murdered on campus by a right wing extremist from the local community.
The sports teams saw this as a failure on their part, and they took a pledge that they would protect any trans students henceforth.
And when I had to start living as a girl, Shannon, last fall, it was the cheerleaders that adopted me first.
But they date the football, basketball, and baseball players, and those guys became my support network.
Understand that I was never expecting this.
Well, the ΘΣΡ sorority, in English, that is Theta Sigma Rho Sorority or just Rho or Rho House.
Rho is the sorority favored by the athletes and the artistic girls who are interested in sorority life on campus.
Why. Because Rho understands that some students are here with commitments well beyond what the normal student has to deal with.
Cheerleading, especially for those who do football and then basketball or football and competitive cheer, is a multi season/term commitment to their sport.
And that means practice at least four times a week for usually two or more hours, plus games, travel, and competition.
All of this takes time. And when they are on campus, it takes more time out of them to handle school, as they all have minimum GPAs that have to be maintained.
Now the arts. Do you realize how many hours a flutist practices a day.
Or a dancer. Or someone involved in musical theater.
The women in the sorority are committed to school, their interests, and only then to the sorority.
And they adopted Carmine and myself. Once we were engaged, they had our twin beads replaced by a queen. And they have been here for Carmine these last few weeks when I have been gone. I would do anything for my sisters.
And you wonder why I have issues with who or what the fuck I am.
There are days I think I know. Then the next day, I know that I do not know.
There are days I wish that I were boy Shannon and that none of this had happened, and there are days that I would never trade this experience for anything.
This is what I love. Boy Shannon loved nothing.
Girl Shannon loves fashion. And no one, absolutely no one, ever saw that coming.
The next few days, I settled back in. Lowri decided that she was going to stay at the house for a while; her room was paid for, not an issue.
Lowri was interested in seeing what an American University was actually like, and, well, why not do the tour thing and perhaps apply to see if she could get accepted here.
Carmine, of course, did not want to share me.
The big news is that we have two cars now. I have been placed on a lease for a Land Rover. Well, what did you expect from Byron, a bloody Jeep.
Anyway, I have a new Land Rover, and the Subaru is now in Carmine’s name so that she can drive it legally.
Pennsylvania is a state where you either have to have your own insurance or be added to the policy on a specific vehicle before you can legally drive it.
Rentals carry their own policy. But driving someone else’s car. You had better have what you need.
Dad added Carmine to all of the family vehicles. The Land Rover has KK Brand paying the insurance and just my name on it. Until Carmine has her own vehicle and we get a policy in her name, different from being added, she can not drive the Land Rover.
We are about a week out on the Porsches arriving. And yes, I email them at least once a day.
However, they are being delivered to Slippery Rock, not Mercer, because we have adequate garages on the farm, and we are not driving these two cars with a hint of ice or snow on a road. Nope, not happening. Carmine has the Outback, and I have the Land Rover; this is just fine by us.
I flew back the gown, jewelry, and other items from the bonus stuff. Dad has insured that now, and he also has a safe installed in our room that can handle everything we need to be safe. And it is a very large safe built into a wall. I suppose that means something for my future.
But I can now wear it safely. High end jewelry is like that; a lot of owners have paste copies made so that they can kind of wear their jewelry. Wearing the real stuff is way too expensive and makes the women targets.
And speaking of targets, Kelley and Sarah have arrived and are at Dad’s right now.
Kelley and Sarah are the full time 24/7 pair who are my real time security.
They are in their late twenties, but both are professionally trained.
And they have both worked for a singer, the name of whom is never shared.
The two trained together, and I think, notice I said I think, are a couple.
They smile when asked and make googly eyes at each other.
But regardless, these two are bonded as a pair, and yes, they do legally carry.
I have been informed that I run a substantial risk, especially returning to the University, as the world knows I am a top model born male.
And that is to place a massive target on me for the right.
The religious right also knows, and there are some campaigns already.
Fortunately, the KK work is not used in the United States, as KK Brands is not in the market; they believe America is a region specific and overcrowded market.
That means that Americans are not really interested in international high end fashion for casual wear, and there are too many companies in the market as it is.
So why try to penetrate when you are doing fine in the rest of the world?