"This was the cross-dressing stage. And maybe it was my ignorance, maybe denial. I just thought that’s just what it’s going to be. But, yeah, that was not where it was going to stop.

About three years ago, that’s when things started changing. When Ian was saying, “I want to live my life like this regularly.”

And I said, “What . . . ? [laughs] But this is just fun, this is something for you and I, right? . . . No, I can’t . . . I can’t . . . ”

This is when I started having difficulty as a partner. I could hear his pain. I did understand—but there was a part of me that was like, wait, where are you going? So I had to deal with a lot of my own abandonment [issues].

You can’t stop a charging train. So, you jump along. I’m going in for the ride. It’s gonna be a roller coaster, but I’m gonna ride it until the wheels fall off—because I have fought hard for our love. We’ve been together for 10 years. Nothing. I don’t see it. I just see that I love you. And that’s how it’s always been."