Hiya,
There were some really cool posts of openness that I adored in this thread. It's really refreshing.
As I started this post my wife walked upstairs and I asked if she really had any boundaries about me being TG'd (other than changing my sex) and her answer was no.

It's good she said that because I was going to tell you all I don't really agree with having boundaries.
Boundaries are walls. I am really a very expression oriented person and I can't handle or cope with walls in a relationship. It's not that I'm great or anything. It's more like because, pour moi, walls in a relationship with me mean I can't be creative and I can't be me. I'd slowly wilt away or die if I couldn't be me.
What I also do feel though is that if I'm in a relationship where my wife doesn't set or have boundaries that aren't boundaries for me too I'd better darned well be very appreciative of this and be very respectful to her areas of sensitivity. Like most of the ladies here my wife drew lines in the sand and those slowly disappeared. I coped with this by understanding, based on research I'd done, if I was consistent with showing her how much I loved her (with actions, not words only) and that other than a gender variance I was the man she'd hope she'd marry one day, that eventually she'd not draw lines in the sand anymore. If those lines stayed drawn, I know me, I wouldn't have been able to stay in the relationship. I've always been weird that way. I love my wife enough to want her to be happy and on top of that we haven't had any children. So it's a little easier to say I would have not stayed in my marriage. Back to what I was saying before I love her enough to let her find someone else if I'm not going to make her happy.
That's sounds so self-serving. "Oh how good of you to be so strong to let her go because you want her to be happy." I'm personally sticking my finger down my throat because that notion makes me want to puke.

I don't mean it that way though. What I mean is I would be miserable as a person if I could not be me. I love who I am and I had to work like hell to do that. So now I have a mechanism inside of me that causes me to withdraw to protect the me I love and not walk down the nightmarish road I once travailed to walked down in my 20s. I couldn't even look in the mirror that's how much I didn't like me. The good news is I'm no longer that way and am very confident, the bad part is it stinks that this mechanism that allowed me to be a happy person is so protective now, I don't let anything keep me from being me. So part of that is, even if I'm going to cry for a million months because my heart is breaking, by the grace of God I have had the ability to let someone go if they can't accept me for me.
I have no boundaries for my wife other than she not go out and be with someone else. That boundary is what a relationship is based on though. Within that I don't tell her what she can't or can't do. "I want to change my hair. I want it short." Ok, well I like long hair, but if that's what she wants I don't care. I'm in love with her. She can do what she wants. "I think I may be a man in a woman's body." Ummm. ok. I don't know how to deal with this, but if you're not talking about leaving the relationship and we can still be a man and wife then I'm ok with that. "I want my mom to move in." We discussed those issues before we got married to find out if we were compatible. "I want to go horse back riding and you hate horses." (I don't hate horses, btw)

I feel free to tell her I don't wanna ride a horse, I'd prefer if you went without me, but if it means a lot to you then I'll go with you, but please don't expect me to love it, but I do love you so I'll go. There are so many variances of acceptance, boundaries, pet peeves, nuances in a relationship, variability in growth, perceptions of marriage that it's impossible to put any relationship in one big bag and group it together.
I'm just saying that I'm not a person who can live in a relationship with boundaries. If my wife could not see me dressed I'd be ok with that, I think? Well, no that's a lie. When I started dressing more my wife was like, "I want my man back." my answer was I'm the same person I was, your "man" is still here. I knew there was no way she could understand what I meant because she hadn't done the research I did about TG'd relationships, but I felt if she trusted me enough and knew how much I loved her that she'd eventually acquiesce and realize she'd given up nothing and gained so much more from me as a husband. I can't begin to tell you the gratitude I feel for her accepting me unconditionally. All my life I'd dreamed of unconditional love and by the grace of God, he answered that prayer. It took hard work by me and her, but we are there now. I pray it will stay this way, but life is change. It's the only things that's guaranteed (I got that from Bridges of Madison County).
What I've learned to respect from reading the forum is people who don't deal with day to day acceptance of a TG'd lifestyle also share the same love those who have unconditional love do. It's love for goodness sake. There is no true definition of love, like there is no true definition of a good marriage, good sex, or good. It's all based on personal perception and other stuff that I'm not intellectual enough to state.
My wife and I had a totally bad spell the first couple of years our marriage. She felt it revolved around the CD'ing. I knew it revolved around my CD'ing and her not loving herself. At a certain point I was starting to detach. Our marriage was ending. We were weeks away from not being together anymore, that's how close it got. I wouldn't budge either. I know I'm a good husband. I know I'm a good guy. I know I can give a woman as much as she can take when it comes to love, openness and honesty. I felt I was being told, I wasn't all of those things. So I prayed and prayed and prayed for strength because I didn't want to end a marriage. It's a vow between us and God to stay together forever through the worst of times. Finally I broke and asked God for forgiveness because I was miserable every day. I had a wife who wouldn't open up to me and it was killing me a little every day. In the traditional sense it was an orgasm (la petit mort). I was dying a little bit everyday.
The climax did indeed come alright. I won't ever forget the night. We decided we were going to sell the house. She went upstairs to take a bath and set up candles and I went downstairs and watched the rain fall in the night. I didn't want to be near her at all. I can still hear the rain. It was so solemn. I felt as if I was starting again and the rain was symbolic of a cleansing. I was interupted from this moment by her as she asked me to come upstairs while she took her bath. I did, but I can remember my attitude... lol.. I was like, "It doesn't matter. This is really very over." I didn't say that though, but I think she did see I had detached. Obviously since we're still together now you can tell I was still open to her, but I knew she was going to have to change, not me. Either she could or she couldn't and I loved her with all my heart either way. Perhaps it took that night for me to finally not accept her allowing herself to portray herself as the only victim. I know I was always allowing her to feel my CD'ing was the reason she was unhappy, but I knew it was more than that.
That night she promised to work harder to hear me more and I promised to not to allow her to play victim. There was no makeup sex and in fact I never realized how hard it is to put a relationship back together when you mentally start leaving it. I didn't even feel, mentally, like I was married to her anymore.
Two years later my wife and I have never been better, have never loved each other more and been open about why, and have never had less boundaries than we do now. It took work though. When we find boundaries we don't just tear them down. We plan on how to remove them. This has done us so much good. We are now partners who accept unconditionally and we more importantly we are best friends.
I relate with Sharon a lot. My wife and I were great as long as we didn't talk about anything personal. When I'd do that it always ended in an argument. The good news is it can be worked out if you're both willing to live through the arguments to get to the much needed communication that will be needed to keep a marriage strong and together. Like with CD'ing many of us aren't capable of explaining ourselves to our SOs. I think the same thing happens with people who are a bit walled off. It gets frustrating to some people and so they shut down, put the wally up and will do anything to make you go away. Then they feel down on themselves when they see how much they've hurt the one they love the most. It turns into a vicious cycle and eventually becomes an unrecognized habit. I know Shannon loves you more than anything. I pray you two will work through this together. You both deserve the best. I hope you both realize you have it in your possession right now.
If you read all of this you are amazing.

If you didn't it's ok. I understand.

Sorry for taking up all of this real state.

Beauty