
TL;DR: The author explores a rare form of love — transamory — where a man loves his partner’s transness as part of her complete identity and beauty.
The first time “Bob” said it plainly I got it. Even when he told “Maria,” she got it too.
“I love her because she’s Maria, and she happens to be trans,” he told me during one of our sessions. Then, after sitting with the feeling a moment longer, he laughed and added, “I fell in love with a trans woman. Fucking how great is that?”
That statement may sound simple to some people reading this. It may be off-putting to some trans women. But it is not simple, nor is it off-putting. In fact, in all my years working with trans-attracted and transamorous men, I can tell you that what Bob expressed in that moment represents something extraordinarily rare: the transition from attraction to integration. From trans-attraction to transamory.
Bob no longer found himself merely aroused by Maria’s transness. He was no longer experiencing her transness as novelty, taboo, experimentation, or fantasy. To his credit, Bob never experienced Maria that way. Nevertheless, Bob had crossed into something much deeper.
He loved Maria wholly. More importantly, he loved her transness as part of that wholeness. That’s what distinguishes mere trans-attraction from transamory.
Fragmented perception
Many trans women struggle to believe this kind of love exists. Some believe it intellectually but cannot emotionally accept it. Others dismiss it entirely as fantasy or projection or a fetish. And I get it.
A number of trans women have experienced so much objectification, fetishization, exploitation, secrecy, abandonment, and conditional desire that the idea of a man authentically loving them because they are trans feels almost impossible to trust.
And that’s because far too many men interact with trans women from fragmentation. They compartmentalize and conditionalize their attraction. Such men eroticize the trans body while emotionally withholding from the trans person. They split desire from intimacy in other words.
In those cases, the transness becomes an object rather than an integrated expression of the woman herself. That dynamic creates profound confusion for everyone involved.
What made Bob’s realization so powerful was that he was describing the exact opposite experience.
At one point in our conversation, he reflected on the possibility of Maria eventually undergoing vaginoplasty. Surprisingly, he admitted something that many men would find difficult to understand. He said that if Maria somehow magically became a cisgender woman overnight, complete with a biological vagina, he would actually feel despair. The reason startled even him.
Misunderstanding fetishization
This had nothing to do with her penis, nor the vaginoplasty she planned to go through. Bob didn’t want Maria to stop being trans. He loved her as Maria, the person who had gone through…is going through…the journey of being trans. He loved her history. Bob loved the integration of femininity and transness together. He loved what he described as her “very womanly” nature combined with her unmistakable trans essence. Bob even described the thought of her future “neo-vagina” as uniquely erotic precisely because it would still be Maria’s trans body evolving into another form of itself.
Now pause there for a moment. If you think that’s fetishization, you’re wrong. Fetishization isolates a body part from the person. What Bob was expressing was exactly the reverse. He was integrating her body, identity, history, energy, femininity, sexuality, vulnerability, and transness into one coherent experience of love.
That is transamory.
When I told him this during our session, he immediately understood the distinction. “Yeah,” he replied quietly. “True.” The emotional maturity present in that realization cannot be overstated.
Most trans-attracted men begin with fragmented polarity. The attraction often arrives explosively. Many describe feeling overwhelmed by the combination of femininity and masculine. Some become obsessed with the erotic tension itself. Others experience shame, confusion, secrecy, compulsivity, or identity destabilization. That last stage is what many trans-attracted men experience and often get stuck there. I’ve worked with many men there. I was once there.
Yet what Bob was expressing had moved beyond polarity into devotion. And devotion changes everything.
Struggling with self-acceptance
Once devotion emerges, the transness no longer exists as an erotic stimulus. It becomes inseparable from the person herself. At that point, for the man, the relationship ceases to revolve around “Can I handle this?” and begins revolving around “I love who this person actually is.”
That shift is what so many trans women hunger to experience but often struggle to believe is possible. And in not believing it’s possible, they prevent themselves from experiencing it.
Unfortunately, many trans women themselves carry profound discomfort about their own transness. Some tolerate it. Some battle it. Others dissociate from it entirely while longing to become “fully” cis in every conceivable way. That’s what “Stealth” is about. Consequently, when a man expresses authentic love specifically for their transness, it can almost feel insulting or invalidating for some trans women.
“How could you love the very thing I’ve struggled with my entire life?” That question lives underneath many relational conflicts I witness between trans women and men growing to love them.
Maria herself wrestled with versions of this tension. During our sessions, Bob repeatedly tried to communicate that his love for her included her transness rather than existing in spite of it. That distinction proved difficult to fully land emotionally for her at times, even though she clearly felt loved by him. She even believed Bob himself might be trans, or that he wouldn’t remain with her once she got her surgery.
Again, this makes complete sense.
Human beings often have the hardest time accepting love directed toward the very aspects of themselves they still struggle to fully embrace.

Transamory: authentic love
What fascinated me most about Bob’s evolution was how relaxed his realization eventually became. Earlier in his journey, he likely would have obsessed over labels, implications, fears, or what his attraction “meant.” By the time we were having these conversations, however, he simply sounded peaceful. His groundedness was obvious. Bob’s integration felt like it had been there all along.
He no longer argued with his own heart. Instead, he was witnessing it honestly. The “it” was and is the growing part of him that feels whole and complete. That honesty produced a level of intimacy many people never experience in any relationship, trans or otherwise.
You see, authentic love is never merely tolerance. Nor is it reduction. Genuine love does not erase difference. It doesn’t flatten uniqueness, or politely look away from complexity. Real love moves toward clarity. It becomes increasingly capable of embracing the totality of another being without demanding fragmentation first.
That is what Bob found. He loved Maria because she was Maria. And part of Maria is her transness. Her transness isn’t an accident, it isn’t something to regret, keep secret or hide. It is just another facet of the beautiful diamond that is Maria.
Is this love trust worthy?
Over the years, I have now witnessed enough versions of this dynamic to say confidently that transamory is not a myth. It is not a fantasy. Nor is it some ideological aspiration. I have watched men evolve into this level of integrated love repeatedly. Struggle typically accompanies that evolution. That’s because prior to evolution a lot of fear exists around what men see necessitates tremendous internal reorganization.
But it’s worth doing that work.
Importantly, reaching this stage does not mean relationships suddenly become easy. In fact, deeper love often exposes deeper layers of insecurity, attachment, jealousy, fear, and vulnerability. As Bob and Maria have already discovered, the ending of the honeymoon phase has challenged both of them profoundly.
Still, something irreversible had already happened inside Bob. He no longer loves Maria despite her transness. He loves her, in part, because of it.
For many trans women reading this, I know that statement may still feel difficult to trust completely. Some of you may even feel resistance rising while reading these words. Yet I encourage you to remain open to the possibility that there are men capable of seeing you far more holistically than your past experiences may suggest.
Those men do exist.
I know because I’ve met them. If you want to meet them, they’re right in front of you. Meeting them, however, requires you to remain calm enough in the presence of evidence proving your fears are valid long enough to ask a question.
What’s the question? I suggest you find out by becoming a client.









