Subject: A Transgender Couple Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:15 am
Arin Andrews and Katie Hill look like your typical teen couple. Andrews, 17, and Hill, 19, both live in Oklahoma and both have a lot in common. One of the main things they have in common is that each is transgender.
Katie, 18, spent the first 15 years of her life as Luke, while Arin, 16, was born a girl called Emerald.
The two met at a trans support group and immediately fell in love. “All I saw was a handsome guy. We're perfect for each other because we both had the same troubles growing up. We're both size five, so we even swap our old clothes our mum's bought us but we hated. We look so convincing as a boy and a girl, nobody even notices now. We secretly feel so good about it because it's the way we've always wanted to be seen',” Katie recently told the British tabloid The Sun.
As for Arin, after struggling through his childhood always feeling as though he didn’t belong in hos own body, he finally feels content. “Now when I’m out in a public pool or lifting weights, no one raises an eyebrow. They just think I’m a guy. ... I can wear a tank top, which I couldn’t before, and I can go swimming shirtless. I can just be a regular guy. And I’m so lucky to have my family and Katie to rely on,” he said in The Sun interview.
As for the parents of the two teens, they are extremely happy and supportive of their kids.
"Knowing what Katie went through for eight-plus years -- there's nothing worse than watching your child suffer," Hill's mom, Jazzlyn, told Tulsa World. "It's still my baby -- male or female, she's still my child. And I don't have to kneel at her grave."
As for Andrews mother, she added, “Seeing Katie go through her surgery was helpful to Arin. It was being around it and seeing her getting to transform. And being a couple at the time was I think just the cherry on the cake. Every transgender person would love to have the transformation physically because it just completes them as a person."
