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After fiercely defending their connection, Dan Swygart shares one message which "made me cry."
Dan Swygart has been feeling the love from "I Am Shauna Rae" fans after defending their relationship in a passionate video earlier this week.
The 27-year-old's "flirtationship" with Shauna Rae -- a 23-year-old whose growth was stunted after a childhood battle with brain cancer -- was highlighted on the most recent season of her TLC show and apparently sparked some backlash for Swygart.
But since sharing a video on Sunday in which he called out the "absolutely disgusting the attitude of some people" who threw criticism their way, he's been flooded with messages of support. On Thursday, he shared one of those messages to his Instagram Story.
"Thank you for your support and for being a defender of the population 'with disabilities' but beyond, for being a defender of the human being and their rights," read the DM. "You have a big and kind heart."
Swygart said the note "actually made me cry." He then added, "You guys are awesome!!! I appreciate every single one of you."
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Dan Swygart, 27, appeared in numerous episodes of the show's second season, which wrapped up on TLC earlier this month. On the show, the two said they met on social media, with Dan actually messaging both Shauna and one of her sisters, before sending Shauna flowers and keeping their conversations going. As he kept coming from the UK to visit her in Long Island, the two got closer -- and while she said the pair kissed, they never put a label on things outside of calling it a "weird flirtationship."
Per TLC, the reality series follows Shauna as she "strives to have the independence of an adult while trapped in the body of an 8-year-old." In the comments of his posts about being on the show throughout the season, some viewers had questioned Dan's motives when it came to Rae.
"Me and Shauna are still just good friends getting to know each other. But I think it's absolutely disgusting the attitude of some people," he said in his passionate video shared earlier this week. "She's been through so much in life. She survived cancer as a child, she's always felt different and been treated different by society. But how dare you take away her right, her human right, to have a connection, a friendship, a relationship with someone else?"
"Who are you to say that she can't have that? I am absolutely disgusted by some people's attitudes towards her and my friendship with her," he continued. "I cannot believe some people who deny her the right to have a friendship or connection with someone else. She is a human being, she is a cancer survivor, she's got disability, she had dwarfism. Who are you to take away her right to have a friendship and connection with someone? How dare you? How dare you?"
He added that he did receive positive messages as well, from those who thanked him for "showcasing that it's okay to build a connection or friendship with someone who's different by society standards."
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In the season finale earlier this month, Dan floated out the idea of the pair traveling abroad somewhere together, which would have been a big step for the duo. Rae, however, was hesitant and said it was a little too soon for that.
"When it comes to specifically looking at a future that involves Dan, I would love to travel with him, I would love to see the world the way he sees it in a sense," she said in the episode's last moments. "I do think Dan and I have a ton of potential, it's just a matter of if we are going in the same direction at the same time. Because he is traveling and I am not currently. That could change everything."
"I Am Shauna Rae" is streaming now on Discovery+.
