It was a provocative sign about racism that Adrian James Burrus was carrying that first caught Quinn Dipboye Sames’s eye at a Black Lives Matter protest on June 11, 2020, in downtown Lexington, Ky. The protest was in response to the deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky.

Mr. Sames, who was there with friends, felt an instant connection when he spotted Mx. Burrus, who uses they/them pronouns, with his group of friends. “I was automatically drawn to them and knew I wanted to know more,” Mr. Sames said of Mx. Burrus. After the protest, the two messaged each other on the app Signal.

Mx. Burrus asked if Mr. Sames was going to another protest in Lexington two days later. Mr. Sames was. The two met there, and Mx. Burrus was arrested that night. The following day, after being released, Mx. Burrus invited Mr. Sames over to their place in Lexington.

“I felt a magical connection, so when they invited me to come to their house, it was an immediate yes for me,” Mr. Sames said. “I was nervous but I kept feeding off the energy of being with them.”

That first date lasted three days, which the two spent “sharing a lot of stories and queer experiences and watching movies,” Mr. Sames said. At the time, Mr. Sames lived at home with his parents. “So, after a couple of days, his mom was like, ‘When are you coming home?’” Mx. Burrus said.

But before he left on June 16, the two officially became a couple. “I wear a Claddagh ring, and I asked if he would be OK if I flipped it over,” Mx. Burrus said, a sign of no longer being single. Mr. Sames readily agreed. “It just felt right,” he said.