(upbeat music)
- Well, I'm transgendered and
my partner is cisgendered.
- I'm cis and Meredith is trans.
- I'm cis.
- I guess that makes me the trans one, then.
(laughing)
- Well, I'm trans.
- And I'm non-trans.
And I think even just that language,
that was language that Tiq gave me, too.
To not always center it as being like cis
and to center trans experience to be like,
it's another, I'm just not a trans person.
- We met online.
- I believe it was on BBS,
a computer bulletin board system.
- I messaged you first,
but we were on a dating site where you needed
to pay in order to message me back.
- I did this nude photo shoot
for National Coming Out Day
and I shared this on Facebook and I talked
about, you know, the importance of creating
safe space for queer and trans young people
to come out and then immediately as I posted
that message, Mr. Milan sent me my very first message.
- When I'm feeling discouraged,
and inclined to give up on something,
you encourage me without pressuring me.
- I think being with him, or being with you,
has helped me be braver in a lot of ways.
- It's made me more responsible emotionally
and willing to take on emotional labor
in a relationship in a lot of ways.
- Yo, we are super committed to each other
and, you know, she is just really,
she supports me in everything that I do.
- The challenges that we have faced
has really taught me how to love in a much deeper,
I think fuller fashion.
I've also grown and matured in terms of my analysis.
I definitely had an understanding of trans issues,
but I think having a front row seat,
a more intimate position has really taught me a lot
and I feel like I've grown as a person because of that.
- A lot of people already think we're rather odd
- [Cathasach] Yeah.
- And sort of on the fringe already in a way I guess.
- We faced very big challenges,
both as individuals and as a couple
and every single time we've grown much stronger from that
and I think that would be surprising.
- It might surprise people
that there are two stars in the relationship.
(laughing)
- Honestly, dealing with other people
and other people misgendering him.
- They don't feel like we have
that kind of trans-related struggle, you know,
like a lot of the time.
It's about kind of like our relationship
and our communication.
- I'm still on a journey of self-discovery,
self-love and just
getting completely comfortable with myself.
- One of the challenges that we had,
especially at the beginning, were other people's perceptions
of our relationship or other people's telling us not
to have a relationship, that it was too soon or that people
feeling like I was abandoning lesbian community
because I was choosing to be with a trans man.
- It's hard.
It's extremely difficult.
- There's a lot of doubt
- Soft on the person and hard on the issues.
- Yes, exactly.
- You know, we gotta keep working on that
like anyone else and I think that people
maybe feel like we don't have to work on those things
or that it comes really easy for us,
but we gotta work on it, we gotta hash those things out.
- Yeah. We're a little kinky.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
We are.
- Love, oh my god.
- Okay.
- [Will] I love you.
- [Cathasach] I love you, too.
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