Lesbian couple who have been married for 21 years to renew their vows after one comes out as trans
A lesbian couple will renew their vows 21 years after they first got married as one of them came out as transgender.
Kent-based couple Denise and Kristiana Taylor have been together since 1996 and recently renewed their vows in 2012.
However, Kristiana soon came out as transgender after the renewal and now they have decided that they will remarry.
Kristiana explained that she was overjoyed that both she and her wife Denise could “both get to wear the dress this time”.
The pair, who met after Kristiana left the Royal Navy in the mid-90’s, has invited 60 of their closest friends and family to say “thank you for the support” in the five years since she began her transition.
Denise explained that she had grown suspicious of her partner before she came out as transgender and thought that maybe she was having an affair.
“For me I thought, her as a man was having an affair or was gay and I kept finding things round the house and didn’t know how to approach it and I was anxious of thinking what was going on,” she said.
“It made me better to know I hadn’t physically been sharing her with someone else but actually someone that was trapped inside and was trying to get out.
“The way I saw it was that the inside is not changing and that’s what I married. So the outside didn’t make much difference.”
While Kristiana has faced some discrimination from friends during her transition, they said that they’ve made many more friends as well.
“We had two lists – one of the people we thought would be OK with it, and those who we thought wouldn’t, and they reversed themselves. It was really strange.”
When it came to telling their son, who is now 14 but was 7 when they decided to tell him, everything was also smooth sailing.
“I very quickly became mum and Denise is mummy,” Kristiana added.
Now the couple is excited to start their new chapter in life.
“Something which could have torn us apart, actually brought us together,” Denise added.
