Kylie Rancor
Jack and Jace Grafe are identical twins who went on their coming out journey together — first mutually acknowledging that they were both attracted to girls and then realizing they were both trans men.
The Grafes’ story was first shared back in 2018, when they were 23.
“Coming from a Christian home, we understand what kind of struggle it is with both the transgender child and the parents as well,” Jack told Good Morning America at the time. “We hope [sharing this story] will create more of an understanding and inform people that it is a real situation and it is a real battle both personally and with other people.”
The brothers acknowledged struggling with gender identity growing up, especially living in a conservative Christian household in Georgia. Jack said he used to “pray to God that I would wake up in a male body” even before he knew about transgender people, and always wore boys’ clothing and saw himself as “generally the same as them.”
After admitting to one another that they were both attracted to girls at age 15, they eventually realized that there was something else at play, as well, and came out to one another as trans at 18.
“I found out Jack was transgender through a Facebook post on his profile, which was specifically for our cosplay friends and has no family,” Jace recalls. “I was like, ‘If you feel like this why didn’t you tell me?’ He said it was awkward, that it was much more than saying, ‘Oh, I like girls.’ I said, ‘Well if you talked to me you would have known that that is how I feel as well.’”
Coming out to one another as trans was a big step, and the twins eventually came out to their family when they were 20.
“I think the biggest thing we did for each other was that we had each other’s back the entire time,” said Jace. “Whatever we went through, we went through together.”
Jack and Jace ultimately started hormone therapy together and transitioned together. Jack has continued posting about his journey on his public Instagram, which shows that he has gotten married and become an uncle in the time since the twins’ story was first shared with the world.
“Funny what a little time and T will do,” he wrote on a recent post.