Alex Dutro-Maeda had just graduated from University of Connecticut and moved to Utah to work at Weber State University. She loved her Great Pyrenees, Kya, comics, and intersectional women’s rights.

Marissa Shields lived in Salt Lake City. She had just moved from inside the closet to firmly outside the closet. Marissa loved books, writing, and her two cats, Oliver and Myla.

Alex and Marissa met the way any modern lesbian does: Tinder. One charming coffee date became seeing baby bears, book exhibits, daring escape rooms, and road-tripping across the West. Each day the spent together pushed them deeper and deeper in love. They moved into together at the beginning of the pandemic.

Marissa proposed to Alex the way anyone dating a pokemon-lover would: with a personalized Pokemon game complete with an 8-bit Kya. Alex said yes, and Marissa became the luckiest girl in the world.