A transgender woman knew she was born in the wrong body from a very young age. Erin Anderson, 22, approached her now-boyfriend Jared Norris, 28, after messaging him on Facebook according to Caters News Agency. Initially, according to Erin, Jared rejected her when she was living as a man named Aaron. However, just two short years later, the two would become matched in a story-like fairytale ending.
After posting to her Instagram account (@erineternity), Jared liked one of her pictures, and reportedly that’s where the dialogue began once again between the two. By this time, Erin had come out as trans and had been living as a woman at the time. Erin told Caters News Agency, “I decided I was going to be upfront, so I sent him a message with my number and within five minutes, I got a message from him and we started talking. The next day was my birthday, I hung out with him and a week later we were dating officially on Facebook and have been together ever since.”
According to Erin, she had been seeing other people but all the romances fizzled out as they were too fearful to tell their parents they were seeing a trans woman. However, Erin stated: “But Jared didn’t fear that, and he told his family that I was trans and everything, he doesn’t care what other people think.” If only all people were as accepting of the trans community as Jared was of his new girlfriend Erin.
According to Erin, she and Jared routinely receive death threats online. One person even said to them “I will beat you up f*****” according to Erin, who added that this “kind of sucked and was depressing.” Erin also says that she will routinely get hate mail about being an openly trans woman. Erin told Caters: “After getting all these death threats we talked about it and decided to ignore everybody, whether they are sending love or hate.”
It is an unfortunate world we live in where people are more focused on hate rather than love and acceptance. Fortunately, Erin says: “I had some messages encouraging us and telling us to ignore the haters, it reminds us that people like that are not worth our time.”
According to Caters News Agency, Erin had been on hormone replacement therapy for some time, however, she has yet to undergo gender reassignment surgery. According to Jared who spoke with Caters as well, “She [Erin] wants to look more feminine, but to me, she already looks beautiful, I understand it’s not about me but at present we couldn’t afford surgery for her to become fully female.” Jared went on to share his affections for Erin by saying, “I will still love her exactly the same, she is still the same person regardless, I think she looks feminine enough, but understand gender dysphoria is a big thing I love the fact that she is willing to be herself even with the ramifications of that, I’m glad she can put herself out there.”
As the two of them remain a pairing, they serve as an inspiration for love and tolerance in LGBTQ communities. Erin’s devotion to being unapologetically herself is truly inspiring. Jared’s acceptance also serves as a fantastic example of the right kind of attitude to have when showing that love will conquer all, despite what people might think. Way to go Erin and Jared!
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