The two women had been dating for months when Kyana Welch decided she didn't want to be Amanda Boyd's girlfriend anymore. She wanted to be her boyfriend.

Jay Welch leans in for a kiss from his girlfriend Amanda Boyd. Although Welch lives in Chicago and Boyd lives in Kent, they still find time on the weekends to visit.

"I've been thinking about it for a while now, and I think you should know that I'm transgendered," Welch told Boyd one night as they lay in bed.

"I cried for months," Boyd says. "For me, knowing this person as Kyana, as my girlfriend, and then having her be like, 'Well, that's not really who I am'–I felt not really lied to, but I felt kind of betrayed about it. Like, what do you mean you're not Kyana? What do you mean you're not this girl I've known and been dating for four months?

"I felt like this person was leaving me, and this new identity was coming and trying to be in a relationship with me."

Boyd began the process of adapting to Welch's coming out. She began referring to Kyana as Jay, the name chosen to express Welch's male identity.

Boyd also began fielding hard questions from members of the gay community.

Are you not gay anymore? Are you not a feminist? Do you like men now? Are you straight?

Boyd says Welch's gender identification doesn't change the way she views herself.

"It doesn't change my sexuality–it definitely opened my eyes," Boyd says. "The whole realization to me is just that it's not a different person; it's the same person. And to me, our relationship is a lot stronger now just because he knows that he can be himself."

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