Transgender couple: he was a girl, she was a boy
31 July, 2013
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The Tulsa, Okla., teens have been together for a little over a year. They met at a transgender support group while they were each transitioning to the opposite gender, and it wasn't long before they fell in love.
The pair has a lot in common. They were both felt out of place in their bodies from a young age and had to endure bullying in school. It turns out, what Arin had, Katie wanted, and vice versa.
Katie, 19, was born "Luke," and struggled with gender identity from a young age. The brunette said she was depressed and ashamed throughout her youth. She first tried to commit suicide when she was 7. When she was 15, she confessed to her mother that she was transgender and asked for her help in becoming a girl, the Daily Mail reports.
For 17-year-old Arin, it was the opposite. He was born a girl named "Emerald" who competed in pageants and performed in dance recitals. But Arin said he felt like he should have been wearing pants instead of dresses.
"I talked like a man, I walked like a man, but I wore a skirt," he said in an interview with ABC's "20/20."
Both have undergone surgery to transform their outward appearances. Katie traveled to California a few days after her 18th birthday for gender reassignment surgery. An anonymous donor covered the nearly $40,000 in costs, according to the Tulsa World.
Arin had his breasts surgically removed in June.
"I hated my breasts, I always felt like they didn't belong. Now I finally feel comfortable in my own body," he told The Sun. "Now when I'm out in a public pool or lifting weights, no one raises an eyebrow. They just think I'm a guy."
He added that he can now wear tank tops and take off his shirt when he goes swimming.
After years of pain, the the couple seems to have finally found happiness, both with themselves and with each other.
"Being transgender myself, I understand Arin probably better than anybody else, how good he feels and how complete he feels," Katie said, according to the Mirror.
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