Meet the amazing identical twins who came out as trans and transitioned together

Trigger Warning: Mentions of Suicide

Say hello to Jace and Jack Grafe, both aged 23. They are identical twins and, as twins often are, inseparable from each other. Not only do they have the same friends, the same interests, and the same jobs (they both work as correction officers), they have something else in common too: their trans identities. When they were both 14 years old, they first heard of the word "transgender." Ever since then, they have been learning more about trans identities and what it is like to transition. Though they were both assigned female at birth, together, they decided to live as their true selves when they transitioned into boys once they completed high school, LGBTQ Nation reports.

"It’s like being in prison except it’s in your own body," Jack said in an interview with Fox 5 about what it feels like to live as the gender you were assigned rather than the one you are. "And the older I got, the harder it was to swallow. And I was like, can’t do this for the rest of my life, I just can’t do it." The Grafe twins are from small-town Georgia and as children attended a conservative Christian school. This made the process of transition even harder; it took them ages just to share their feelings with one another. He continued, "Fear is like the biggest thing to keep you away from anything. That’s what kept me in my box."

Both twins continued to present as female until they graduated from high school. Once they did, they began exploring the options they had to live more authentic lives. Jack explained, "As soon as I got out of that, I cut my hair, I changed my clothes." Then, within one week of each other, they both started hormone therapy together at the age of 21. According to Jace, the whole experience would have been a lot more difficult if he did not have his brother by his side. He said, "I feel like we’ve saved each other from a lot of really dark and depressing moments. Sometimes, I wonder if he wasn’t here, if I would have been by myself, if I would have had suicidal thoughts. I’m not saying I would have, but it’s very possible. I would have been most definitely alone."

The Grafe twins have definitely come a long way since then. Not only do both their driver's licenses have male gender markers (which is quite a big deal for someone who is trans), but they are also in loving relationships with their respective partners. Jack stated, "It’s real now, it’s official." Jace added that he is finally perfect to himself. "It’s perfect to me, I’m finally perfect to me," he affirmed. "I’m just excited to finally go out there and be exactly what I’ve been dreaming about for a long time."