A woman has revealed how the girlfriend she met on Tinder became her husband after he admitted that he was born the wrong gender just months before their wedding.
Chase and Elan Storey, from Calgary, Alberta, both identified as women when they started their relationship in 2017.
However last year the couple tied the knot as man and wife after Chase, 28, told Elan, also 28, that he didn’t want to be her wife – but her husband instead.
Chase started his life-long course of testosterone hormones in September, but he is yet to undergo any surgical procedures.
Chase and Elan Storey, from Calgary, Alberta, both identified as women when they started their relationship in 2017 but are now husband and wife (pictured recently)
The couple recently began to share their story on social media, in the hopes of offering some representation and support to partners of trans people.
After leaving a toxic relationship with a cisgender male, Elan took to Tinder to seek out her first lesbian relationship.
When she matched with Chase they clicked instantly and knew that they had to meet.
Elan told Truly: ‘His picture was with maybe six or seven other people… So I was like, “Wow, I don’t even know who this person is or what they look like, but I’m swiping it right”. Then you matched me at work, and we talked literally all day.’
Chase met Elan while identifying as a woman, but admitted he was never fully comfortable with his gender. Chase is pictured before he met Elan and made the decision to transition
Chase and Elan, both 28, met on Tinder and claim they clicked instantly, and their relationship progressed quickly. Pictured early on in their relationship before Chase’s transition
Chase added: ‘I remember just like, going through [Tinder] and I saw her profile… I was like, “This girl’s way too beautiful”.’
When they first met, Chase told those around him that he was a lesbian woman, despite claiming he was never fully comfortable with how he identified.
He said: ‘I tried to discover transitioning about 10 years ago or eight years ago. I really did not have a great support system back then. It was always a constant in my mind. I was just too afraid.’
Two years into their relationship, a week before they got engaged, Chase dropped the bombshell that he believed he was born in the wrong gender.
When the happy couple first met (pictured), Chase told those around him that he was a lesbian woman
‘We were just laying in bed and I was circling, like thinking about it, because I was like, “Oh, my God, I don’t want to get married. I want to be your husband. I don’t want to be your wife”,’ he explained.
Met with support and affirmation from Elan, Chase began using he/him pronouns and the couple were later married as husband and wife.
Elan said: ‘I wasn’t surprised. The dynamic of our relationship always leaned more to like a male-female couple. So I wouldn’t say that like, I knew he was going to come out as trans, but it definitely did not surprise me.
‘We did not want to wait to get married. We were so impatient. We got engaged in April and we got married in August. So we actually got married pre-transition.
Two years into their relationship, a week before they got engaged, Chase dropped the bombshell that he believed he was born in the wrong gender. Pictured before left and right recently
‘I think there was a little bit of worry on my part that it might be weird for other people. But to me at that point. it didn’t bother me at all.’
Chase is now nine months into his testosterone treatments and said the changes that have happened have been ‘really cool’ so far.
‘Obviously physically – I now have facial hair which is like a huge giveaway,’ he said.
‘With the coronavirus and everything, elective surgeries were put on hold for top surgery.
‘So eventually I’d say, in the next four months, hopefully, I’ll get a phone call to book a consult. And that’ll be the only surgery that I’ve considered at this point.
The couple, pictured in January, recently began to share their story on social media, in the hopes of offering some representation and support to partners of trans people
‘Watching the extensiveness and the processes of bottom surgery, I don’t think that’s my pathway.’
The feelings surrounding Chase’s transition among their loved ones have been mixed, they say, with some family members affirming Chase’s identity and others unwilling to accept it.
‘There are some people who didn’t necessarily adapt to it immediately,’ Chase said.
‘Some people made it kind of difficult and upsetting.’
Speaking about the response online, Elan said: ‘There’s a lot of YouTube channels or Instagram accounts that are fully showing the person going through the transition, but it was so hard to find a couple’s journey or how a partner can deal with it and handle it in their feelings.’
Chase started his life-long course of testosterone hormones in September, but he is yet to undergo any surgical procedures. Pictured: the difference to Chase’s appearance in 10 months
The feelings surrounding Chase’s transition among their loved ones have been mixed, they say, with some family members affirming Chase’s identity and others unwilling to accept it
While the couple say that they receive overwhelmingly positive feedback on their posts, they have sometimes had to face hurtful comments from online trolls.
‘We’ve gotten one [comment] being like, “You’ll never be a real man” and I’m just like, “Cool. Delete.” This is not the space for like really like stupid negative things like that,’ Chase explained.
Elan added: ‘I feel like we’ve been extremely lucky when it comes to our online presence and our social media platforms. We still mostly get positive comments.
‘I answer every single DM, like, no matter how many we get, we’ll answer them all.’