Dianne Harris shows trans people can find love at any age on ‘Better Date Than Never’

Romantic reality docuseries Better Date Than Never premiered on ABC iview in Australia recently, and love is pouring in for its inclusive and hopeful cast. Among them is a woman with a story we seldom see televised: Dianne Harris, a 68-year-old trans woman, is looking to finally complete her search for love in her rural New South Wales area.

Harris, president of her local Pride organization, has been on the lookout for her partner for years, but it took her some time to be comfortable enough to actually start looking. Knowing herself to be a girl since age seven and knowing she’s been attracted to women her whole adult life, Harris still has trouble to this day openly calling herself a lesbian.

On Better Date Than Never, she’s finally ready to lay it all on the line for love.

Her introduction is patently adorable:

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In an interview with The Canberra Times, she explains what’s kept her from finding the one all this time.

“Being in a regional area, for starters the internet is useless, so that just about wipes out all of those apps everybody’s got on their phones for dating services,” she explains. Truly, the adage of queer dating being like applying for jobs now (“you either do it online or get a referral”) rings true, so shoddy web access is a huge hurdle to overcome.

For her specific identity, however, fickle wi-fi is far from the biggest hurdle.

“For a transgender person, male to female, straight women look at us and go, ‘You’re not male, so not interested,’ and the lesbian women look at us and go, ‘well hang on, you’re not female,’ so they’re not really interested either,” she continues.

“It’s a lonely life to live when you know nobody’s there for you, or even interested in you.”

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Such is the importance of a show like this sharing her story. Throughout the six-part series, we not only get to hear about her journey, but we watch as she goes on a lovely first date — the kind of date Harris had almost written off before the show.

As much as her participation is about her own love life, she understands the stride she’s taking for people like her just for daring to stand up.

“We’re so judged, and society hasn’t got its head right around trans people and what it means. The more we can educate people, the better,” she says.

As far as where she stands now? “I’m living my dream. I am really, really living my dream.”