What is it like dating a trans man?
Jessenia Vice and Jaimie Wilson reveal what it’s like dating as a transgender man and cisgender woman.
Transgender singer and activist Jaimie Wilson and cisgender actress and presenter Jessenia Vice fell in love when Vice slid into Wilson’s Instagram DMs and he replied with his phone number.
The pair are now in a serious relationship and live together with their dog in New York.
Vice and Wilson want to show that relationships like theirs are normal and that dating a trans man is no different from dating a cisgender man.
Vice explains that dating Jaimie has been different but not because he is transgender.
“I think it’s mainly because of our connection, I think we share a lot as creators, as artists. Our feelings and our connection, it’s deep-rooted [more] than just the physical… and that’s great and different,” she says.
Watch the video below:
Coming out to Jessenia Vice’s parents
One of the hardest things Vice and Wilson had to go through as a couple was coming out to Vice’s parents.
Vice’s mother wasn’t sure what being transgender meant. “I had to explain in full depth what it all meant and then she respected the fact that this was still the same person she had initially met months and months and months prior,” explains Jessenia.
Wilson no longer has a close relationship with his family since coming out as transgender when he was 19 years old. He was kicked out of his parents’ house and forced to fend for himself. As a result, for Wilson, being accepted by Vice’s family makes all the difference.
Assumptions about dating a trans man
The biggest assumptions that Vice gets is people assuming that because she is dating Wilson she must be a lesbian or bisexual—and surprisingly they receive these comments from a lot of people in the LGBT+ community.
Pressure from social media
Another struggle that Wilson and Vice face as a couple is the hate they both receive from social media.
Wilson was worried that Vice wouldn’t be able to cope with the backlash from people on the internet.
“I feel like I had this fear that she was going to get so much hate from being with someone like me… and I was like I don’t want to ruin this person’s life,” says Wilson.
Luckily Vice wasn’t worried about the hate because “there will always be hate on social media.”
Ultimately, the couple want to normalise their relationship and hope that through it they can teach people to confront their own ignorance.
