Finally, some positive news! Trans couple Jake and Hannah Graf have welcomed their first baby to the world
Hannah and Jake Graf welcomed their first daughter in April. (Twitter)
British trans couple Jake and Hannah Graf announced Thursday morning on Twitter the birth of their daughter, and they “could not be happier or more grateful”.
Do you hear that sound? It’s the sound of every Twitter user collectively going “aww” as their hearts burst all at once.
The trailblazing trans activists and happy couple announced in December that they were expecting their first child via a surrogate due on April 12.
And while there might have been a couple of days delay, the pair couldn’t care less as they caressed their newborn in an adorable snap shared by Jake.
She’s here!! ?❤️?? Our amazing surrogate brought our daughter into the world at 5:30am Tuesday morning. We couldn’t be happier nor more grateful.??@hannahw253 pic.twitter.com/GWDLZNVubq
— Jake Graf (@JakeGraf1) April 16, 2020
“She’s here!” Jake wrote in the tender tweet, “our amazing surrogate brought our daughter into the world at 5.30am Tuesday morning.
“We couldn’t be happier nor more grateful.”
It’s the joyful end to a year-long journey for the couple, who have at every turn battled seething, anti-trans vitriol from opponents. Often screaming at Jake and Hannah for simply existing, falling in love and starting, at long last, a family together.
Family and friends of Hannah and Jake Graf have been ‘entirely supportive and loving’.
The British couple first discussed their intention to have a baby in 2018 before brimming with pride as they announced to the press that they used a surrogate for Jake who froze his eggs before his gender-affirmation surgery when he was 36.
Hannah, 32, formerly the highest-ranking trans officer in the British Army, left her position in 2018 to clock-into a finance job and prepare to help raise a child.
However, trans people getting on with their lives often act as lightning rods for unsolicited transphobic criticism.
Conscious of criticism, the couple have noted that their loved ones have been “entirely supportive and loving”, but have already faced a bubbling backlash to starting a family.
“We had a very upsetting message from an old schoolfriend I hadn’t seen in 20 years who said she felt surrogacy was ‘utterly wrong’,” said Jake.
“Yet, she was speaking as a mum fortunate enough to have three children, and we felt it wasn’t her business to comment.”
Hannah added: “The trouble is, people have strong opinions about surrogacy, as they do about people being transgender, without taking the care to understand.”
