AP News Article Claiming Marriage can ‘Thrive’ After Gender Transition Met with Backlash, Ratio on X

X User: ‘Why not stories on the pain it can inflict? Why does everything have to be propaganda?’

Published: June 20, 2024
  |   By Chris Karr
AP News Article Claiming Marriage can ‘Thrive’ After Gender Transition Met with Backlash, Ratio on X

A Thursday article from Associated Press (AP News) drew the ire of X users by suggesting marriage can survive “and even thrive” after one partner undergoes a gender transition.


The article, titled “Can a marriage survive a gender transition? Yes, and even thrive. How these couples make it work,” features two women who had previously identified as a lesbian and a bisexual.

“Now [Marissa Lasoff-Santos’] partner has become her husband, and they both identify as queer. And things are better than ever,” writes AP editor Jeff McMillan, who also serves as an at-large director on the board of the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists.

“Lasoff-Santos’ relationship and others like it show that a partner’s gender transition does not necessarily mean a death sentence for a marriage,” the article states. “Data is scant, but couples and therapists say that in many cases, a relationship grows and flourishes under the light of new honesty.”

McMillan, who regularly covers LGBTQ+ issues for the outlet, writes that such marriages “can underscore the resilience of love, the flexibility of sexual identity and diversity in LGBTQ+ relationships.”

“Even though he was the one transitioning, I felt like I was going through my own transition,” said Lasoff-Santos. “It was definitely hard to not, I guess, come across as kind of selfish, because I was going through all these emotions, and he was going through his own journey.”


The article also features Avril Clark, who started an online network for partners of people who identify as transgender or nonbinary. Clark’s former husband, an Israeli soccer referee, came out as a transgender woman in 2018. Prior to her husband’s coming out, Clark said they lived “a double life” for 15 years.

Though she sought help from various groups that had similar experiences, she said, “They were full of people that were very angry and bitter and didn’t want anybody else’s relationship to work because their relationship hadn’t worked.”

Clark said that her group, Distinction Support, includes over 500 people who are “all fighting, some of them fighting to make their relationship work.”

“She estimates her group is 90% cisgender women and 5% transgender or nonbinary people who may also have a partner in transition. The remaining 5% are cisgender husbands, she says,” AP reports.

Another formerly heterosexual couple from a small town in Iowa described the process of coaching a partner through a new identity as joyous.

Rhiannon Rippke-Koch recounted a trip with her husband-turned-wife that involved shopping for a bra at Victoria’s Secret and undergoing a makeover at Sephora.

“It was awesome,” said Sophia, the man whom she refers to as her wife.

The couple explained that since Sophia has broken free from the notions associated with conventional masculinity, they can now bond over subjects like musicals and flowers.

Rhiannon said they’re now “much more intimate, and not even in a sexual way.”

As of Thursday morning, users have “ratio’d” AP News’ posting of the article on X, with about twice as many comments than likes. The majority of the comments are negative.

“[A] natural 20 on a gaslight attempt [and] a natural 1 on wisdom check,” wrote one user.

“Why not stories on the pain it can inflict as well? Why does everything have to be propaganda?” asked one person.

“AP definitely isn’t pushing an agenda or biased[.] What a joke the AP is,” another person commented, suggesting Alex Jones is a more trustworthy source for news. "AP should be ashamed of themselves for this," he added.

Other X accounts accused the outlet of spreading propaganda, prioritizing promotion over reporting, and misleading their readers.

At the time of reporting, all visible X users who reposted the article with a comment shared a negative reaction.



















A cursory review of X users who share similar anecdotes involving a post-gender transition breakup unearths generally negative opinions.










Several married women have expressed an unwillingness to support their husbands if they wanted to transition in X posts unrelated to AP News' article.





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