KATIE: I couldn't imagine not having him in
my life in some way, friendship, relationship, um my butler or something, I don't know.
COMM: They've been the champions of the transgender
community. Katie Hill and Arin Andrews both changed gender at the same time, leading to
romance between the young couple. Their fight to change views on gender gave them a unique
bond. But the two recently split, to the dismay of their family and friends.
COMM: While Katie is fully transitioned and
is embracing her new life, Arin feels left behind, and now wants to complete his transition
more than ever, with dangerous surgery.
KATIE: Doing things like this with the girls,
y'know getting my nails done, getting my hair done helps me take my mind off the break up.
COMM: Two years ago Katie, who was born Luke,
had full gender reassignment costing forty thousand dollars.
KATIE: I'm pretty much just like one of the girls
you know, and people who don't know, yeah, they're like "join the sorority, come sleep over, come be my roommate
next year in my apartment" and none of them are any the wiser, and that's awesome.
COMM: But while Katie is being one of the
girls, Arin still feels he has more to do on his journey to become a man.
ARIN: It's been a few months past my top surgery
and having it done was the best decision I could have made besides starting testosterone,
because now I'm way more comfortable with my body, now I can just throw my shirt off
with the guys, go jump in the pool, go work out.
COMM: But full gender reassignment for females
to males is risky, and Arin's mum Denise is worried that the break up with Katie is pushing
Arin towards a rash decision.
DENISE: As soon as they broke up that was
one of the first things he started hounding me about, I was concerned about that spiralling
down into depression and those are the kind of things that we really haven't had to deal
with for a while since his transition.
COMM: Knowing the risks, Katie was worried too.
KATIE: I do feel really bad about Arin's surgery.
It's not as medically advanced, it costs a lot more, it's much more complicated.
COMM: As the dust settles on the break up,
Arin has time to reflect and realises time is on his side.
KATIE: Hey, what's going on?
ARIN: Not much, how're you?
ARIN: The breakup did kinda make me realise
I really might want to think about having the bottom surgery, but that was more of an impulsive
thing. But when it comes down to it, that sure would be nice to have and not have that issue
in a relationship. I'd love to be married one day and have my own kids and have a kid
that calls me their dad and y'know, all that.
COMM: And although the romance is over, the
pair continue to support each other.
ARIN: We have a very unique bond that we can
both relate on the fact that we've been through the same stuff.
KATIE: I think that's what's really important
is that we've been there for each other through the whole hard parts of it, and now we can
just focus on having fun and enjoying being who we really are.