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Childhood sweethearts Tay and Anayah Kennedy were both females when they started dating five years ago.

But they now identify as husband and wife in a straight relationship, after Tay began to undergo the transitioning process to become a man.

Tay, 22, started his hormone replacement therapy a year ago and wants to have surgery.

His his wife Anayah says it doesn’t matter what gender her husband is as she will love him regardless.

Anayah, 19, from Jacksonville, Florida in the USA, said: “I am attracted to Tay as a man just the same as I was as a woman, maybe even more.

(Image: Gerrit Messersmith / Barcroft Images)

(Image: Barcroft Images)

"It really didn’t make a difference to me at all. I love the same person at heart.

"So that’s what I fell in love with.”

Tay and Anayah grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, first meeting at a pizza restaurant, where they both worked.

Friends at first, Tay had identified as a lesbian from an early age while Anayah had only gone out with boys.

Tay said: “We have been together for five years now, I have been with her since I was 17 and she was 14.

“We were friends for like six months almost, we were best friends, we were very close.

“I had been a lesbian since I was young so my family was open to it."

For Anayah, although her family were surprised when she started dating another woman, they weren’t surprised she was dating Tay.

(Image: Barcroft Images) (Image: Barcroft Images)

Anayah said: “We were very close, actually our family members and the people that we surrounded ourselves with even told us that we liked each other even before we told ourselves so I guess it was kind of obvious.

“I wouldn’t say that we had friends or family that disapproved, some people were shocked or, of course there is negativity that comes with it.

Even before transitioning Tay would wear masculine clothes and ask to be referred to as a ‘he’.

But by the time Tay turned 18 years old it was clear to both Tay and Anayah that Tay wasn’t a lesbian - Tay was a trans male.

Tay said: “I think I was about six years old when I felt like I was born in a wrong body.

“I used to look at myself every day in the mirror [and think] something is not right about myself like: ‘why do I have to look like this? I was supposed to be a boy, why was I born a girl?’

(Image: Barcroft Images) (Image: Barcroft Images)

“The first person I told that I wanted to be trans was my wife, I talked to her about it because I was afraid because she fell in love with a girl so I didn’t know how she would feel.

The year Tay turned 21 was extra memorable as it’s also the year he married Anayah – not as her wife but as her husband.

At a simple court house wedding, Anayah wore a red velvet dress that matched Tay’s tie in his wedding suit.

Anayah said: “We got married on my birthday on June 27 last year.

“We actually just did like a small court house wedding with our close family and friends.

“But that is why we want to have our big wedding in 2020, on my birthday again.”

For Nay though she will love her husband regardless of if he has his surgeries or not.

She said: “I don’t care what you do. You can walk around looking like a clown all day.

"You can paint your face orange, dye your hair white, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me.”