2026 Love List

Tsim Muaj & Cia Siab Rose Moua, Madison, 5.5 years
Rosha & Melissa Guadalupe, Milwaukee, 4 years
Jess & Skye Zitkus, Madison, 8 years
Stephanie & Cindy Jorenby, Belleville, 8 years
Scott & Micah Topel, Beaver Dam, 6.5 years
Alisha Hart & Junior Rittenhouse, Muskego, 2 years

At first glance, Junior and I looked like a contradiction. He was a trans police officer, steady and uniformed, working inside a system I had spent my life challenging. I had built my career in social justice, naming harm, demanding accountability, and pushing against institutions that too often failed the people they were meant to protect. On paper, we were an impossible equation. Add to that my two boys and a 150-pound mastiff, his two dogs, and an hour-and-fifteen-minute drive between us, and love seemed wildly impractical.

And yet, from the beginning, something clicked.

Where I carried fire, Junior carried calm. Where I questioned everything, he listened deeply. He embodied the very qualities policing desperately needs: Kindness without ego, patience without passivity, steadiness without rigidity. He didn’t deny the harm caused by the system he worked in. Instead, he spoke about change from within, about showing up differently, about modeling what safety and dignity could look like in real time. I realized that while I had spent years naming what was broken, Junior was quietly living the tools for repair.

We became the missing pieces for each other.

Our conversations stretched into the night, honest and sometimes heavy, always grounded in mutual respect. We talked about history, oppression, and the gap between intention and impact. We talked about how wanting change is not enough if you don’t know how to build it. Together, we imagined something better, not just in theory, but in practice, in daily choices, in how we loved our families and our communities.

After a year, Junior did something that still humbles me. He packed up his life, his house, and his two dogs, and moved closer to me. Suddenly, our world was louder, messier, fuller. Three dogs underfoot. Two kids with endless questions and boundless energy. Schedules overlapping, hearts expanding. The chaos was real, but so was the joy.

What we found in each other was not just love, but healing. We both arrived carrying old wounds, tired from fighting in different ways. Within our partnership, we found peace. Not the absence of struggle, but the presence of safety. The kind that lets you rest. The kind that lets you grow.

Now our life is an adventure built on intention, laughter, and shared purpose. Against the odds, or maybe because of them, we are proof that love can be both radical and gentle. That change can be tender. And that sometimes, the most powerful thing you can do is find someone who meets you exactly where you are and walks forward with you anyway.