18 Months: A Memoir of a Marriage Lost to Gender Identity

Shannon is no stranger to alternative lifestyles. Raised by Christian parents in Bluegrass country, she fled to the city, scraped together an education, worked for drag shows and befriended poets and anarchists at clothing-optional parties. By the time she settled into her 14-year relationship with Jamie, she had dated women and experimented with polyamory.

So when her husband begins crossdressing, she sees no problem--she enjoys flouting the straight world's pointless rules. Trouble is brewing, though. Jamie's dive into the world of identity leads to shifting values, sexual dysfunction and a crippling depression. Still deeply in love with the kind, outdoorsy folksinger she once knew, Shannon is committed to working through these challenges. But she is blindsided by the unusual demands of gender dysphoria and learns the hard way that compassion, communication, and even love sometimes just aren't enough.

18 Months is a fierce defense of love in the face of loss, culminating in self-discovery and reinvention.