Chapter 49: Bart’s Backstory: Perfect at all Costs
"Seriously?" Kim asked. "Don't you have sponsors or something?"
"Yeah, I do, but they're supporting me because of my parents," Sonya replied. "If my parents pull their support, then my sponsors will too."
"How does that work?" Patricia asked.
"It's actually simple," Sonya replied matter-of-facctly. "My parents are one the board of directors in their company. Not ones at the top, but they still have a lot of influence in the company. If they knew I liked girls, they would pretty much disown me and do everything they could to cancel me. Those who support them would be more than willing to attack anyone who would support me after that."
"Seriously?" Kim asked again, feeling herself getting rather upset about the whole matter. "Wouldn't the left cancel them instead for being homophobic?"
Sonya sighed. "I'm not sure what it's like on your world, but on mine, as long as they're the 'right kind of people' they can pretty much do what they want and not get serious consequences," she replied, sounding rather resigned. "They wouldn't say it's because of me going out with a girl. They'd come up with some excuse as to why that's perfectly acceptable for the public. The real reason wouldn't matter to those who would otherwise be outraged on my behalf. Just like those who get accused of sexual harassment. If they're not among a certain group, they get crucified in the media, but if they're one of the 'right kind of people' they'll get a much more muted response in the media usually. Sometimes they'll lose the job they currently have, but they'll typically not get run out of their careers."
"Why would the do something like that?" Elin asked, her confusion evident in her voice. "Shouldn't they love you no matter what?"
"I really couldn't say," Sonya replied. "All I know for sure is that they have made it clear that I'm only to be going out with guys."
"Uh, we're kind of getting off topic," Owen remarked. "We still have two people to go, so who wants to go next?"
"I'll go," Bart volunteers.
"Good enough for me," Jonas remarked.