Trans Man Shares Moving Journey Changing Gender While Keeping Childhood BFF
newsweek.comvideo posted to Instagram via the account @thegravelbro by Leo Macallan has gone viral for revealing how his connection with his childhood best friend has persisted through all the trials and joys of life—including a gender transition—for 20 years.Macallan, 32, told Newsweek about the origins of their friendship and how, when the time came to tell his best friend he was transgender, he wasn't nervous at all. "How it feels to change your gender, but keep your best friend," Macallan captioned the video. "Twenty years of being bros."The pair's friendship dates back to the seventh grade, when Macallan moved to a "sleepy" fishing town on the coast of New Jersey, he said.
His best friend, Theo, began coming over to his house to tutor him and his twin sister in math."We became fast friends, riding bikes to school, climbing out of windows to have moonlit campfires, you name it," Macallan said. "It was a very wholesome way to grow up."In a family situation Macallan said was extremely difficult, Theo brought "a realm of imagination and enchantment" to his and his sister's life."I would've been a very different man if Theo and I had not been kids together," he said.Theo was involved in Macallan's life in more ways than one, too—he dated his sister from the time he was in eighth grade until college.
However, even after they broke up, the two friends remained close."Over the years, everyone else drifted apart, as they do, but Theo and I found ourselves back together, sitting under the firelight and making each other laugh until our sides ached and cooking hot dogs," Macallan said.A post shared by Leo Macallan (@thegravelbro)When it came to his transition, Macallan said he didn't even have a second thought in telling Theo.
He doesn't even remember exactly how he told him. "I only remember the ones that I was really apprehensive about," Macallan added.The story of his coming out to Theo was only a detail in the long and beautiful way their personalities had shaped each.
