A photo of a lesbian transgender couple kissing in front of hate preachers at South Carolina pride has gone viral.
The photo of Jessica May and Josie Saint, which was posted by May on the “pics” subreddit, shows the two holding one another in front of people carrying signs that say “Homo sex is a sin.”
The couple from Columbia was walking through the Columbia South Carolina Pride Festival when they spotted Christian hate protesters with homophobic signs standing on the street corner.
May, 30, said one man held a microphone and was preaching about how queer people needed to turn away from their sins and face the eternal wrath of God in hell.
“He said things like trans people were ‘mutilated deformities’ and that ‘gay love is an abomination’. So many people were just walking by trying to enjoy the festival and were scared and upset by the protesters,” May told Newsweek.
Unwilling to let the hate go unchallenged, May and Saint decided to kiss in front of the hate preachers and have their friend, Alie Strehl (@potatecreates on Instagram), take a photo.
Alie Strehl/@potatecreates
“The hate preachers just kind of awkwardly looked away. They don’t know how to react when they see queer and trans love, but the best part was that other people started doing it too and taking pictures in front of the hate preachers too,” May said.
The photo carries a deeper meaning for the couple, both of whom are trans women who transitioned later in life.
Saint, 33, told Newsweek that both she and May put off their transitions for years due to fear, despite knowing they were trans.
“We were afraid of what people would say about us, if people would still love us, and also afraid that we would go to hell since we were both Christian for a large majority of our lives. We both nearly took our own lives because of it. For us, transition was a necessity and if we had not decided to transition, neither of us would still be alive today,” she said.
This commitment to self-acceptance and living authentically transformed both their lives and inspired them to become advocates for trans joy by creating content on TikTok, where they met.
“We both realized that the most powerful weapon we have against the hate that trans people are facing is genuine love and authentic joy,” Saint told Newsweek.
Their decision to kiss in front of the preachers was not just an act of defiance, but a message to the world. “The most important thing that people like us need to see in the world today is that our love is more powerful than their hate,” Saint said.
Strehl’s photo went viral on Reddit. At the time of writing, May’s post has received 52,000 upvotes and over 6,000 comments—both supportive and hateful.
“Some people hate it and were really loud about it,” May said, adding that she believed most of the comments were other Reddit users writing homophobic or transphobic things.
“But also people were really wonderful. People thought it was beautiful, brave [and] inspiring, and the most popular comments were the positive ones. I think more people liked it than disliked it, but the haters are always louder,” she said.
Saint agreed and said that the online hate didn’t faze the couple. While Reddit’s unfiltered nature made moderating hateful comments almost impossible, both were grateful to have shared the moment.
“Whether people loved it or hated it, it resonated with them and made people think. And knowing that the love that Jess and I share has that much power is incredible,” Saint said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
