Support groups offer swapees forum, advice without pressure

Nick Blanchard and I were recently invited to a Swap Support Group in Canton, Ohio. It has been running since prior to the advent of the BISA or the Church run by Evelyn Trimble, and offers swapees a less formal medium to vent their frustrations at adjusting their entire lives. Small groups like these have cropped up all over the nation, loosely-associated and subtly but not expressly supported by BISA. They meet in church basements, community centres, rec halls, auditoriums, wherever they can rent out. Nick and I enter and are greeted quite heartily.

"Well hello," one young man, Cassandra Davis, a 14-year-old Ohio girl in the body of a 10-year-old boy, greets us, shaking Nick's hand first and telling her, "Wow, you're very lucky," he turns to me and says, "You were so pretty."

Nick blushes and explains that she and I are not connected in that way, the original occupant of her body just opted not to take the road trip (as Nick had yet to start her new job but Traci was getting used to his.)

There are ten people present apart from us. They encourage people to come with their swap-partners, but this isn't always possible. Shaun Speedman and Marie DiManno, two University Students, sit across from each other. Victoria Worth, a St. Paul, MN single mother who was swapped into the body of a Vancouver teen, came alone, as did William Trenton, originally from Oklahoma. Also present are Lew and Donna Frickman.

Darren Chau and Brad Eidelman, from San Diego, CA and Canton, OH respectively, set the pace of the meeting. They were swapped in December. Chau, a fireman, and Eidelman, a Kindergarten teacher, agreed to start running support meetings after discussing Chau's unfortunate inability to face fires the way he previously had, owing strangely to a recurring dream Eidelman had as a child.

"There will always be pressure, be it from your family, co-workers, even the BISA, for you to adopt the identity of the body you have been given," begins Eidelman, "But you can't forget it is you who dictates your identity. Not society, not a piece of paper, not the face you wear. What's under it."

There are rumblings of agreement as the floor is opened. Trenton stands first. Originally a high school student, he was swapped into the body of Melissa Belleville-Adams, a 29-year-old French/American widowed teacher just a week before his seventeenth birthday in March. After it happened, she tearfully explained, her mother, Noelle Trenton, was in dire need of gallbladder surgery, a procedure the lower-middle class family could ill afford. At her darkest moment, the younger Trenton nearly accepted a role in a pornographic film series, "New Confessions of a Window Washer" to pay for the procedure.

Belleville-Adams was a onetime contender for the title of Miss France before moving to the United States with her husband (a native of Louisiana,) and giving up modelling to become a teacher. Trenton was very afraid for her mother's life, but was disgusted at the proposition, saying her mother would never forgive her if she even knew the offer had been considered.

I watched Nick's face through that story. Having had some personal, physical and romantic adjustments to make for herself, it appeared to affect her. William Trenton never said whether she actually performed in the adult film, but sobbingly informed us that they did indeed raise the money needed for the procedure.

There was a bald older man with a goatee sitting in the corner playing with a cigarette throughout the story. He never introduced himself, and before I could ask him, he left the building. The meeting continued.

Cassandra Davis attempts to express his frustration at being a prepubescent male, but words appear to fail him and he doesn't seem to find the words he is looking for. So he re-takes his seat. Nick indulges in a few lighthearted anecdotes about living with his former body.

The meeting becomes more of a debate as the Frickmans expound the virtues of the Church of the Holy Redeemer, as they'd recently joined. Having thought enough about the Church that week, I stepped out, where the mystery man was waiting.

"Need a light?" he says, emerging from the shadows lit only by the orange bead of light from his Camel cigarette.

"No, I'm not here to smoke, I just needed some... air," I told him.

He chuckled and went back to the shadows.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

He asked me in return, "you're the news guy, right? From the website?"

"Yeah."

Again, he chuckled. "I think you'll find out soon enough."

"But... you've been swapped, right?"

He nods.

More than a little perplexed, I return to the meeting.

Speedman and DiManno are arguing, which often seems to happen. They share a common ground: DiManno, a studious girl, was a star on the University of Sydney Women's Basketball Team, and Speedman, originally an African-American, was attending the University of Alabama on a basketball scholarship. however, as University of Alabama does not have a women's basketball team, Speedman has met difficulty and may not return to the school next year. There is, you might imagine, some hostility between the two.

Speedman, who in DiManno's body dresses like the gangsta she once was, looks somewhat ridiclous in the baggy jeans and chains. Having grown frustrated with her current life, Speedman, in contrast to many swapees, has become aggressively sexual toward both genders. DiManno, meanwhile, dresses like a proper gentlemen and retains an Aussie accent, and seriously disapproves of Speedman's actions.

Chau and Eidleman break the argument off as best they can, telling people that an hour is about up and they can check the website if they want to come to another meeting. Speedman leaves in a huff, DiManno exits the other way. I get contact information for as many people as possible.

I remain most curious, however, about the smoking man. He told me I'd find out soon enough. I don't think I can wait that long.