As it happened, in a very different time and place, there was a powerful nation-state known as the Confederation of Freemen. This was a Democracy where anyone could vote, anyone could run for office, and anyone could have their voices counted, as long as they were white, male, and paid the United Strength Party enough money.
The Party took care of everyone, at least everyone who behaved properly and knew their place. They were glad enough to have workers of every race and color and spiritual practice and made sure that they were paid just enough to survive. They were also happy to have women in the workforce, as teachers and nurses and administrative assistants, as well as workers in their factories and mills, but were happier when they stayed home as mothers to raise children and, hopefully, their husbands were rich enough to afford that.
This was a large and prosperous country and somewhere deep in its northeast provinces was a great and long waterway known as the Massive River and along its banks, among many other places, were two small cities, Bratten’s Bridge and Summerfield.
While most of its citizens were happy enough with their lot, there were, unfortunately, malcontents in the area. Some of them lived in the South Bratten’s Bridge neighborhood in several old houses and called themselves the Interbeing Collective.
This was a complex and chaotic little group of punk-freaks, green radicals, queer anti capitalists, and New Transformationalists. They were not only women and men (some of whom did not fit the Party’s definition of women and men) but genderqueer and genderfree folk. And they were raising children there.
Although they were primarily pale skinned people, there was a large enough minority of brown, black, amber, and bronze folk with them. One of the black folk there was a woman named Audree, whose primary relationship was with another woman called Devora, who was white and followed the faith of her mother.
Audree’s sister, Adrienne, lived in a farming community, not ten miles away, which called itself the Motherland Tribe. The Tribe was nestled in the foothills of the Grey Mountains, on the other side of the Massive River, several miles northeast of Summerfield.
They were a band of people of many colors, a few of them were even white, but none of those were men born men. They were not only farmers but activists and organizers and community builders, determined to live in harmony with the land and each other. They followed the ways of their ancestors and attempted to have as little to do with the authorities as possible.
The Interbeing Collective and the Motherland Tribe were uneasy allies who tried to trust each other and sometimes succeeded.
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