"Merci beaucoup, thank you so much for this gift," Miranda "M.T." Tupinier said, smiling, as her boyfriend Benjamin "Benny" Guerrier solemnly handed her a pack of brightly colored men's boxer shorts. She wasn't expecting that, especially from him. The two of them were chilling inside Benny's apartment in Montreal-Nord, and he'd gone out to grab a cheese pizza, and come back with a sweet-smelling pizza, and so much more...
The tall, tomboyish, heavily tattooed, butch-identified young French Canadian woman positively blushed, touched beyond measure by this simple yet oh-so meaningful gesture. Some of the women M.T. had previously dated found her fondness for wearing male attire, especially male underwear, appalling. Hell, one of them thought it was a rejection of her female identity...
Benjamin, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind M.T. and her unapologetically tomboyish ways. From her habit of not shaving below the neck to wearing men's clothes, walking about with a swagger and even using men's deodorant, the Haitian stud was totally accepting of M.T. and her peculiar habits, which he found pretty cool. Upon hearing her words of gratitude, Benny nodded courteously, in the traditional manner of prim and proper Haitians worldwide. Squealing, M.T. threw herself into his arms...
"Whoa," Benjamin said, barely catching M.T. as the athletic young woman nearly tripped him off his feet. Grinning mischievously, M.T. tickled Benjamin, who yelped, and then true to form, he fell on the nearby couch, with her on top of him. As the stunned young man looked on, a smiling M.T. took off her tank top, revealing her small, pale breasts...
"Hey, Benny, don't just stare at them, grab them," M.T. said, and Benjamin tentatively reached for her breasts. M.T. licked her lips, watching as Benjamin began caressing her. Straddling him, M.T. felt Benjamin grow hard under her, and smiled, pleased with his reaction to her. Better late than never, M.T. thought, both amused and turned on by what Benjamin was doing to her.
"You're so beautiful, Em-Tee," Benjamin said, his thick Haitian accent sounding like sweet music to her ears as he gently caressed her face. Looking into his soulful dark brown eyes, she saw an intensity that surprised her. Who would have thought that after years of identifying as a butch lesbian Quebecer with nationalistic tendencies, she'd discover her latent bisexuality and find herself attracted to a nerdy Haitian guy straight from the Caribbean?
"Enough of the romantic shit, mon amour, I'm too horny for that," M.T. said, and she kissed Benjamin with a hunger and urgency that surprised them both. This wasn't her first time making love, but it was definitely her first time with a guy. Tentatively, Benjamin's hands roamed all over her body, and M.T. bit her lips, his merest touch setting her flesh ablaze...
"My tomboy goddess," Benjamin whispered, and he and M.T. began the kisses again. The two of them began undressing each other. Tall and lithe, and lacking the attributes that society prized in women such as large breasts, curves and prominent buttocks, M.T. had seldom felt beautiful. In her relationships with women, mostly the femme types, M.T. found herself drawn to those women whose beauty matched the ideal. Not once did she feel safe and secure in her femininity, projecting a hard-edged, ever-silent, stoic, butch-gal demeanor. And this attracted the femmes like moths to the proverbial flame...
"My Haitian king," M.T. replied, kissing Benjamin, the man who took her breath away the first time she laid eyes on him. A few months ago, M.T. showed up at a panel discussion of LGBT rights at McGill University in downtown Montreal, Quebec. An engineering student at nearby Concordia University, M.T. was dating a magnificent femme named Tina Chan, who brought her to the fateful panel discussion.
"Bonjour, tout le monde, I am Benjamin, I'm from Haiti, I study criminal justice here at McGill University, and I respect LGBT rights, but I have noticed that some members of this diverse community seem to have a strong dislike for people of African descent," Benjamin said, as he took the podium. At first, immediately upon hearing this, M.T. was angry. How dare this CIS-gendered, patriarchal male dare accuse the most marginalized community of all, the LGBT community, of racism?
"In my experience, sir, the LGBT community is no more racist than, say, Jamaicans are homophobic," M.T. replied smartly, to overwhelming applause from the other people in attendance. Undaunted by his opposition, Benjamin looked M.T. in the eye, and for some reason, as their eyes met, her heart skipped a beat and she looked away. M.T. looked so disturbed that her girlfriend Tina looked at her with concern.
"M.T. babe are you alright?" Tina asked, and M.T. looked at the tall, curvy and busty, outspoken and openly gay Asian-Canadian woman who had been her partner for over a year, and smiled. M.T. resumed looking at Benjamin, who addressed the audience like a seasoned politician. Benjamin spoke politely, answering questions in a firm yet gentle manner, and again and again he apologized for the anti-gay sentiments in the black community, yet stuck to his guns while condemning anti-black sentiment in the LGBT community...
"There's something about this guy," M.T. remembered saying, to a surprised Tina. Fast forward six months, and Tina was gone, having grown disgusted with M.T. since the latter admitted to being bisexual. Tina hadn't known how to react upon hearing M.T. the self-styled butch lesbian activist, her favorite short-haired, lithe and muscular French-Canadian tomboy, confess to having sexual feelings for both women and men...
"I can't be with you, M.T. you are a fraud, you act like you're a big tough butch lesbian but deep down, you are into men and I can't stand that," Tina Chan said sternly, the day she put M.T. out on the street. Crestfallen and heartbroken, M.T. walked away from her yearlong relationship, and incidentally, from the vibrant, diverse LGBT community of Montreal.
As fate would have it, there was much hardship in store for M.T. after the demise of her relationship. For her ex-girlfriend Tina Chan put the word out about her sexual proclivities, and M.T. found herself an outcast in the community that once championed her. The LGBT world simply wasn't ready for a tall, masculine woman who identified as butch...and bisexual. M.T. found that out the hard way. Even in the queer community, there were hard limits. Her loneliness persisted, until a chance encounter with Benjamin brought everything into perspective...
"No one has the right to judge you for being attracted to both sexes," Benjamin told M.T. Seeing him walk into a restaurant called the Caribbean Café in downtown Montreal, M.T. followed him and swiftly reintroduced herself, and this was followed by an angry tirade on her part. Basically, M.T. cursed Benjamin for causing her to realize her latent bisexuality in the first place, and for causing the demise of her yearlong relationship with Tina Chan, whom she considered the crème de la crème of femmes...
"I want to hate you but can't," M.T. remembered saying, as she angrily confronted Benjamin, who stood there, calmly looking at her. The Caribbean Café owner, a lovely Jamaican woman named Beatrice basically told M.T. to leave since she was causing a commotion, but Benjamin talked her out of it. Angry and puzzled by the tall, handsome, well-dressed and apparently saintly young Haitian scholar, M.T. fell silent...
"You see, my dear M.T. I feel what you feel, I am a bisexual brother, indeed, I am attracted to both women and men, I can freely admit that I like Serena Williams big round booty and Lebron James supremely fine abs," Benjamin said with a smile, as a stunned M.T. looked at him as though he had two heads. She was definitely not expecting that. Seriously, if Benjamin had confessed to being a Martian, M.T. wouldn't have been more surprised...
"Fuck me," M.T. said, stunned by Benjamin's impromptu revelation. The self-styled French Canadian butch woman did not see that one coming. All of a sudden, Benjamin Guerrier's sensitivity to LGBT issues made sense. M.T. heard herself apologize to him, and she and Benjamin shook hands. Nonplussed, the Haitian stud invited her to grab a drink with him...and that's how it all began between the two of them...