This is the story of the country's first transsexual president, and her struggle to be accepted by her people. It wasn't something she sought out, but now that she was in the White House, she had to do her best for the country, though it was hard going when one was transgender, not to mention a transsexual, and many were still not accepting even if it was the middle of the 21st century already.

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             note: pictures used are publicly-accessible pictures from the net. No i.p. or copyright infringement is intended.

It was February 14, the Friday before Presidents' Day. It was also Valentine's Day.

Three-day weekends are always great, and people usually celebrate them with some kind of trip or vacation, and some would leave early Friday afternoon or evening, or on Saturday morning at the latest.

Of course, Presidents' Day (or, officially, "Washington's Birthday") was only a holiday for federal government employees. However, on this particular Friday, most of the people that worked in government weren't leaving early in the afternoon as one usually would to maximize a three-day weekend. Many were going out on long "weekend dates," of course – it was Valentine's Day after all - but there weren't as many as one would have expected: most were actually inside in front of their TVs at home that night, waiting for the State of The Union speech of the President, as were a lot of the regular folks.

Between 1934 and the present, the speech has been scheduled as early as January 3 and as late as February 12. But President Xander broke tradition and pushed it back further this year, to Friday, February 14, so that it would coincide with Valentine's Day (obviously) and with Presidents' Day Weekend (probably).

But then, this was President Xander - the most unconventional President in the history of the Union: the first woman president (though many homophobes and gay-bashers would say that she's not really a woman, as many of their kind would say of any trans-woman), the youngest president (she was confirmed as VP at age thirty-five - by law, literally the youngest anyone could be president or VP), the president with the most new legislation passed in a two-year period, the most decorated world leader, and one of the few presidents who was responsible for averting a imminent stock market crash (this particular one precipitated by legislation sponsored by the previous administration). Indeed, she has done a lot of tradition-breaking things already in her short two-plus years in office, and this State of the Union speech was expected to be another tradition-breaker.

The scheduling of the speech generated a lot of speculation in the press, and a lot of bad feelings in the country's two Houses of Congress - after all, who would want to cancel dates on Valentine's Day, or mess up vacation plans just to listen to the President's speech, especially a speech from this particular president.

But President Xander, by making brilliant use of the congressional grapevine, let it be known that there was going to be a BIG announcement that she privately assured all of the country's leaders they wouldnt want to miss.

The press heard of this, too, but, like everyone, they didn't hear what the announcement itself was about - very, very unusual and, for the pessimists and conspiracy theorists, very scary: after all, what could this mean?

This was because, amazingly, there were no leaks, which many considered unusual to say the least – impossible, actually. But President Xander's people were very loyal and extremely competent, as were Vice President Reynolds and his staff. There were no leaks.

Ever since New Year's, there had been feverish activity inside the West Wing, and several high-powered political operatives and figures were always going in and coming out of the West Wing and the OEOB for interviews with the President's or the Vice President's staff. The news media felt like these people were being vetted, but for what, no one knew. Whatever the announcement, it was most probably connected to these activities.

- - - - -

It was nearing 8:30PM, so the President started preparing to leave for the Capitol Building in order to make the 9PM schedule. The Designated Survivor - it was the Secretary of Education this time - was in place, as was the junior senator from Alaska, and the congressman from California's 13th district: these two were selected by the two houses of congress for their rump legislature, to take over in case the Senate's president pro tempore or the Speaker of the House were lost along with the president and the vice president - this was the congress's version of a designated survivor.

Upon the President's arrival at the House chamber, the Congress's House Sergeant at Arms announced the president of the United States, and President Xander then walked the short distance to the Speaker's Rostrum, stopping often to shake hands, to exchange greetings or to exchange politically-safe hugs and/or kisses. There were multiple photo ops and the press took advantage. The current president was the most photogenic politician in the history of modern US politics, after all. And the hottest, too, even considering the fact that she was a transgender woman.

As usual, she was dressed and made up very fashionably and tastefully, and not overdone nor exotic in the least. Early in her term, many of her detractors and a lot of homophobes warned that her dress style will be very embarrassing for the country (after all, gay people were known for their flamboyant and outré styles and tastes). However, these sartorially-challenged lawmakers were chagrined to find out the new president had a style appropriate to the office, and never made any fashion faux pas nor wore any questionable ensembles. In fact, she became the most photographed head of state ever, and the one head of state that was as featured in fashion and celebrity magazines as any Victoria's Secret model, and was hailed as the country's sexiest conservatively-dressed fashion icon. In fact, Vogue said that sexy and conservative weren't mutually exclusive anymore, as attested by the fact that they and Vanity Fair had made her part of their International Best Dressed List several years running (covering the last few years of her tenure as Wyoming's AG, and her tenure as VP and, eventually, President).

In addition, because of her example, her staff made more of an effort to be better groomed and fashion-conscious themselves, and, soon, the rest of the government followed suit, or at least a lot more than those that did before. Government employees became the fashionistas for once - in parties, in bars, and in any place where people gathered socially, the well dressed ones were now the government employees.

She did make waves in fashion circles, though, when it was quickly discovered that almost her entire fashionable wardrobe was actually from places like, gasp! Target, Wal-Mart, Khols, Ross and Payless! Fashion hawks also quickly unearthed the fact that the President's favorite places to shop included Joe Fresh, Nordstrom Rack, J. Crew Factory, Express, and unpopularly, Uniqlo (since Uniqlo was known to be more as an Asian retailer instead of an American one).

Because of which, these businesses, as well as other openly low-cost retail stores, became more socially acceptable instead of being guilty pleasures for the cash-strapped majority.

Unsurprisingly, the first special interest group to rear its ugly head and openly put down the President was not the conservative groups but the fashion industry, where high-end and designer brand retailers, and the celebrity fashionistas that shilled for them, openly mocked her so-called dollar store style.

She didn't need to dress down, the people from the fashion industry said - she was independently wealthy, and could more than afford to buy their exclusive brands. But she didn't, and she didn't hide that fact, either. She didn't openly announce it either, however, since doing so would openly alienate her from her status-conscious fellow politicians.

But far from hurting her or being belittled for this, it actually endeared her to the public more, and from that point, the fashion industry spin doctors decided to drop the attack ads and slanted articles lest the country turn on them. One good thing did happen, though: most of the high-end fashion retailers dropped their prices, in deference to the popular new president. Not by much, to be sure, but enough that it would be noticed. Their prices were still outrageously overpriced, but at least they weren't obscenely overpriced, deluding the middle class into thinking that they could now afford these clothes. In the end, this actually increased the sales of high-end fashion items because of the token price reductions. Which improved the economy, and made the fashion industry a lot more supportive to the president.

Besides, the President wasn't really against haute couture and high-fashion clothes: she just espoused the idea that one should live within ones means, and had striven to be an example.

In fact, she actually did wear high-fashion stuff during special occasions when it was warranted, as seen in the gala events that she attended, the most visible one was when she attended the wedding of the British flyer she rescued during the war, and where she was selected by the groom to be his best woman.

In North America and the UK, the guy the groom picks as the one to help him in his wedding is usually called the best man, although it doesn't necessarily have to be a man. In those few instances when the groom gives this honor to a woman, that person is called the best woman or the best person. You can look it up.

And in that particular occassion, the president wore a fitted woman's tuxedo-style suit with large black buttons and a black ribbon necktie or women's necktie, instead of a man's formal bow tie. Under it was a crisp, white, long-sleeved blouse. To make it less butch-like, instead of wearing slacks, she paired it with an above-the-knee pleated fitted black skirt with smoky nylons underneath, and pair of patent-leather stiletto pumps. What she picked actually went well with the black Armani-style tuxedos that the groom and the groomsmen wore - sort of like the women's equivalent of their suits, and paired well with the pastel dresses of the bridesmaids.

She looked beautiful and radiant, in a formal sort of way, and almost stole the bride's thunder (but didn't quite do so - a fact that elevated her in the eyes of many women - after all, a woman's wedding day is her big moment to shine, and the president showed incredible class by not stealing that moment when she could have easily done so).

For a while, that particular style became somewhat in vogue for female fashionistas at formal events, all because of her.

But even there, what she wore were not one-off pieces but from catalogs - it was one of the three requirements she insisted on with her sister: that her clothes not be one-off pieces or a bespoke outfit but pret-a-porter, that they match what the groomsmen were wearing, and, above all, that they be absolutely feminine-looking. That made it triply difficult for her sister to select the outfit.

The President never wore one-off designer stuff – ever: she always picked stuff off-the-shelf, ready-to-wear or from catalogs, in order not to show any kind of favoritism to any one designer and avoid the ridiculous pricetags of bespoke clothes, and, ironically, that included her sister's designs.

The president's twenty-five year old sister was a sought-after haute couture fashion designer. Kelly-Ann Theodora Olofsdotter Xander (because of her initials, she was just simply called Kat by her friends) has been a fixture in Italy's Fashion Week and in most major fashion events for the past five years or so, ever since she was discovered while studying fashion design in Institute Francais de la Mode in Paris. However, if ever the President would go haute couture, everyone knew she'd surely wear Kat's designs instead of others - the president never hid her sense of loyalty for family and friends.

Even so, Kat was, in fact, the one who picks all of the President's clothes for her (she was sort of the President's unofficial stylist and buyer), so though the President's wardrobe was almost all low-cost or discount off-the-shelf clothes, they were all very tasteful, and most fashion critics were usually hard-put to identify if what the President was wearing was actually a high-street fashion brand or just something from Target.

With the two thousand-dollar a month budget Kat was allowed, given the low pricetags of her sister's wardrobe, Kat was able to dress the President in something new almost everyday, and except from some favorites that the president wanted to keep, her clothes were always new, and after being worn a few times, they were anonymously and untracably donated to various charitable organizations in DC, thereby preventing any accumulation of stuff in the presidential residence.

Kat soon became well known among the various malls and stores in DC since she regularly trawled the shelves and displays of Wal-Mart or Khols for skirts, blouses or blazers, or picked up a couple of pumps from Payless.

They all knew it was for the President, so the retail stores' bosses knew to stock their DC branches with their best lines and products, making sure to keep their price points within what they knew Kat preferred.

Kat was quick to pick up on their strategies, though - as soon as she found something she liked and the price was suspiciously too good to be true, she'd call back to her office in the East Wing of the White House, and ask one of her people to check the store's online catalogs for their prices, or have someone actually go out to one of their stores in a different city and check the prices. Because of the frequency of these kinds of things, the Federal Trade Commission actually had a person or two in Kat's staff just to help her do this, and then to initiate steps in addressing this unfair business practice.

Those that Kat found to be artificially changing their DC stores’ prices on the off-chance that she'd be shopping there would be reported immediately to the FTC as well as to the Better Business Bureau, and a lengthy investigation would ensue. Typically, there would be a small penalty or fine, which was not a big deal, but the investigations would drag on and disrupt business, and the news would eventually leak out and damage the chain's reputation.

In any case, the hullabaloo about the President's attire died a quick death, quickly killed off by the same sartorial conspirators who were now the President's fast friends. And they went on charging the public exorbitant amounts of money for their creations, and the celebrity fashionistas went back to parading themselves in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Entertainment Today on TV, and other places wearing the shiny, expensive fashions they loved so much. But now, in an ironic twist, it was these expensive fashion houses who were copying designs from the low-cost chains, at least for the styles that Kat and the president preferred.

"If only my being transgender could be as easily dealt with," she would tell Kat with melancholy wistfulness.

In any case, the State of the Union event was one occasion where the President wore something high-fashion (though catalog). Her outfit was tasteful and conservative, but in colors and cuts and fabrics that were uniquely (but conservatively) in the President's signature style. As a real redhead, her complexion and hair color definitely made her fashion palette a little more unique than the average politician, especially with her to-die-for figure (even though it was, in small part due to hormones and some minor liposuction and feminization surgery).

She was thirty-seven now but, even so, she was still five years younger than President Teddy Roosevelt when he became president: Roosevelt was the youngest-ever president before she came along, and her style and demeanor spoke of a younger generation, unlike President Roosevelt, who tried to take on the image of an elder statesman.

The State of the Union event was intended to be typical of other State of the Union events, but typical really wasn't what people expected, given what President Xander was - the country's first transgender leader - and given the unusual manner of her taking office, who can blame them?

to be continued...

click here to read my old Working Girl Blogs, click here to read all of my blogs, click here to read my stories in BCTS, and click here to see my profile & know more about me.