#points:1

Even though she was permitted to join the sorority, for the whole year Mia felt as though she was never quite good enough for the other woman.  However, Tanishia was inspiring and Mia couldn't help but want to get more involved herself.  She found herself going to her mother, her grandmothers, and asking them more about their own experiences.  She began to seek out opportunities to share those stories, and her own developing one, acknowledging that because her skin wasn't as dark, her experience was different.   It didn't seem to make a difference with Tanishia though and it bothered Mia because the other would never fully admit to why she seemed to dislike her.  

Still, if it wasn't for Tanishia, Mia can admit that she might not have explored her own history and experiences as a woman of color growing up in the south.  She might not continue to make sure minority voices are heard whenever she can.  It's not enough when you are a minority to stand up.  You have to be heard, and moreover, help others be heard as well.  Mia still struggles with this to be honest.  It applies as to PRIDE month as it does to other aspects of her life as well.  

Growing up Hunter always knew what was expected of him.  His father was an officer in the military, as was his grandfather and great grandfather.  He was even named after the military base he was born on.  Elementary school was whichever school was on the base they were stationed at at the time, but after elementary, Hunter began attending various military schools around the country as they moved around.  Military schools were boarding schools, sometimes close to his family, but often at least a couple of hours away.  It meant sharing a barrack room often with 9 other boys and and open, communal bathroom.  Everything personal in your possession had to fit in a locker sized wardrobe or the footlocker at the foot of your bed.  

Life at military school lacked quite a few things, one of them being girls.  And yet, the irony of course was that it was assumed, expected, that all of the young men there knew another part of their military life was to find a woman capable of living the military lifestyle.  One that wound appreciate and support the sacrifice their husbands made.  Hunter's own mother was a perfect example of the kind of woman he was expected to find.   And it's not that girls didn't interest Hunter, they did.  They were beautiful, graceful, charming.  But he often found there was a boy or two he could say the same of.  His living conditions didn't make it difficult to notice other boys; their strength, determination, loyalty.  The hardness of their bodies, the ways their muscles moved in coordinated efforts.  What was difficult, was acting on it.  Hunter guarded himself.  Eyes focused ahead, often on something in the distance, lest he be accused of lingering glances and making anyone uncomfortable.  He attempted to practice modesty, both for himself and the boys around him, but it was a luxury the military academy didn't often afford them.

Later in his teen years, as his friends at the academy started to flirt with girls on their rare interactions with them, and began developing crushes, Hunter assumed his lack of crushes stemmed from perhaps being gay.  Not that he thought he had crushes on any of the boys either though.  But that could just be from the deep-seeded repression.  Gymnastics had been a way to develop his core strength, to use the muscles in his arms, and even the rest of his legs, and develop speed and agility that would benefit a solider.  Hunter never expected it would be the way to escape all of his family expectations on him.  

Making the National gymnastics team and entering the world of competitive gymnastics wasn't all that different from life at the military academy.  Except in the ways that it was.  Still surrounded by other boys, men, really, this time it wasn't assumed that Hunter was heterosexual, but rather is was assumed that he might not be.  This was a confusing, but fascinating shift for him.  And again, working and living in such close quarters with his male teammates (the women train at a different facility), Hunter had the opportunity to notice all the things about mens' bodies that he'd begun to notice before.  And he more than noticed them.  He also had the opportunity to explore that attraction a little more, waiting for the repression to finally fuck off, Hunter expected to develop feelings for one of his team mates in particular as they set out on a casual but satisfying relationship together.  Those feelings never came though.  At first he thought they just hadn't come perhaps as quickly as they had in the case of his partner, but really there was barely even an inkling of anything but raw attraction and their friendship.  And despite the assumption that he wasn’t heterosexual, and the ability to finally explore that, Hunter did and still does, find himself attracted to women as well.  

Mia grew up in San Antonio, Texas and it was perhaps not the most accepting place in the world.  Her family, however, were very accepting.  Perhaps it was their attitude that made it easier for Mia to follow her passions and chase her bliss in many different ways.  For her it wasn't a one moment that suddenly made everything make sense when it came to her sexuality, and it has evolved over time and the years.  She adored her brother Matt, who was a football player and often she could be found in the stands during his games or even his practices.  She definitely didn't mind the tight football pants Matt's friends wore, or the large shoulder pads that made the boys seem even wider than they were.  After all, wasn't that what she was supposed to like?

But Mia was also always drawn to fashion at an early age, and she'd spend much of her free time at the corner newspaper stand, bookstore, or drug store, flipping through the glossy pages of magazines like Vogue, Elle, GQ,  and Glamour.  Studying the fashions also meant studying the model's, the ways the fashions clung to their bodies.  And it wasn't just the models.  Mia found herself watching girls, women, around her; at first for the clothes they were wearing, and then just for themselves.  The softness of their bodies, the curves, the colors.  Fashion wasn't about covering up, it was about exposing.  Not in a vulgar way, but a real way.  

Even though it wasn't the easiest thing to be honest about who she was, her family definitely helped make it better.  And as she looked around, Mia realized that sometimes it was easier for girls who liked girls than boys who liked boys, at least at the high school level, because a closeness between girlfriends, an emotional bond, and connection, was more common with girls that age then boys, and it didn't have to mean that both or either girl was gay.   While she didn’t openly embrace the bisexual lifestyle in high school, Mia was as honest as she dared to be about who she was.  She shared that part of herself with trusted friends over the years, sometimes with good results and sometimes without.