Partners' Feelings

By Kim (trans)

We talk a great deal, and rightly so, about the journey trans people must make. But I want to talk about something we do not discuss nearly enough: the price our partners pay.

My partner married the whole package — both the inside and the out. Her dreams, her expectations and her desires are all, in some measure, in question now. Life has cheated her just as surely as it has cheated me — though in a very different way.

She did not choose this. She did not sign up for it. And yet here she is, finding reserves of love and courage that continue to astonish me.

It is a real price for them, just as ours is for us. They deserve acknowledgement, support and space to grieve what has changed — alongside us, not instead of us.