Can a marriage survive a gender transition? Yes, and even thrive. How some couples make it work

(20 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTON SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
London, UK - 11 June 2024
1. Avril Clark who runs Distinction Support, an online network that helps supportive partners of trans and nonbinary people, and Lucy Clark, spouse of Avril, coming out of the house
2. Avril Clark and Lucy Clark kissing
3. Various of Clarks in garden
4. Clarks holding hands
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Avril Clark, who runs Distinction Support:
"Actually we'd been living a double life for a very, very long time. And I didn't think there was any groups that were for me, because I've always been in the more positive space rather than the negative space. And everybody I was coming across was very negative and I think you don't need other people bringing you down. And I found this group called Distinction, and I found my home and I found my tribe. It was very small, there was only probably a 20 or 30 people in the group. It was very UK based. But it was great because I was speaking to other people that felt the same way I did that wanted to make it work and were looking for ways to do that."
6. Sign reading (English): "Remember as far as anyone knows we're a nice normal family"
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Lucy Clark, spouse of Avril Clark:
"Avril wanted me to come out years before. But I didn't because I thought it would affect football. And I, you know, I loved football and had it in my mind that I would give it up."
Avril Clark (English): "There's always an excuse not to as well. I think it's really hard for a trans person to actually come out and publicly stand in front of people and say who they are. But I always truly believed, I mean, she told me years ago, years and years way before she came out. Hence we lived a double life for 15 years. But it was, I had to wait for her to be ready. And I think it was, yeah, she'd already started to transition in private, but it was, said it was the heart attacks that made her decide to keep going with football and that brought a whole different thing. And I think actually it made us closer because we were together. We've always been a team, but we really became a team even more then because we had so much to deal with from outside noise coming in and commenting about our relationship."
8. Clarks sitting on sofa
9. Dog on sofa
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Avril Clark, who runs Distinction Support:
"They would lead you to believe that majority of relationships fail. Now I've got this group with all these people on it, all fighting, some of them fighting to make their relationship work. Some are finding it a bit easier than others to make that work. But it's not unusual."
11. Clark holding photo
12. Close of photo of Clarks on holiday
13. Clarks in kitchen
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Avril Clark, who runs Distinction Support:
"You can have a trans partner, and you can be in that relationship before they come out as being trans or non-binary, and you can stay together and you can make it work. It's not all doom and gloom, and it's not even necessarily hard work to make it work."
Lucy Clark (English): "We have a great life. To be fair, we go on holidays, we go and do things. We go out and, you know, we have a great life and we have a happy life, you know, which is, you know, don't we?"
Avril Clark (English): "We do have a happy life."
Lucy Clark (English): "And it allows you as well to be your true self and to express yourself, you know, colouring your hair and wearing what clothes you want and going... do you know what again, for you, just like for me, you get one life so you need to live it and, you know, and be yourself."
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Haram 👎