WHEN opposites ATTRACT

What happens when you have fundamentally different beliefs to someone you love? With societies facing growing ideological divides, Dilvin Yasa meets three duos who have opposing views on vaccination, religion and diet, and discovers how they make their relationship work

- Dilvin Yasa

“We know when to look the other way”

Dana Pham, a 33-year-old who works in human resources, is a staunch Catholic and engaged to Hayley (surname withheld), a 32-year-old doctor and self-confessed “militant atheist”.

DANA SAYS: “I was raised in a Catholic household but fell away from the faith as a teenager after I told a religious sister I was trans and she responded in a way that bruised me emotionally. That experience left me in limbo for years, but as I neared the end of my 20s I began to feel like something was missing; I needed to get back to my roots. The process of coming home took some time, but I reconnected with my Catholic faith and community a couple of years ago.

When Hayley and I met at a lesbian speed-dating event back in 2019, I felt a spark between us that continues to grow to this day. Obviously, many within the LGBTQI community tend to be agnostic or atheist so I don’t know that I ever expected to fall in love with someone who shares my religious beliefs. Let’s just say I wasn’t exactly surprised when Hayley revealed how she felt about religion a couple of weeks in.