I think this forum and others are great places for we who are in this crazy gender variant TG situation. It gives us a "safe place." We often are able to not feel so alone. To be able to freely say things that we often cannot otherwise. To vent, to cry, to laugh. Make friends.
So too though, I think these places are not always good for us. I am no stranger to internet forums. Especially on forums, and generally in the virtual world, social media.... people are able to put up a great image of themselves. While I am not calling out any one individual here, it is pretty much a guarantee that there are and have been members here and other TG sites who will present this wonderful image of themselves. How they are out and about and the world smiles and gushes with joy for them. Their partners sooo ok with anything and everything. Not that these things don't occur, I know that they do. But it is the extent of which, and how some people present themselves is what I am referring to. If I was younger, or perhaps not experienced on forums, I can see myself getting quite down about myself in regards to my gender variance, how my wife reacts to it etc etc.
We have seen this before too, lots of encouragement from many members to get out, to tell their wife and families, Live the life....and it all goes to. The members who did not fare so well likely wonder what they did wrong, and begin to feel down on themselves and thinking they are the cause of their lack of acceptance, that the sun does not shine down on them as it does for so many others.
The reality is that the sun does not shine down for many who are in the spectrum. More marriages than not struggle with it. Some end because of it. Some families get torn apart, some friends alienate, co workers etc etc.
This is not in any way a call for us to go back to the closet or to not come out. Just a reality check. If it was all just roses and sunshine, there would not be a need for these forums with all of the anonymity. There would not be all of the struggle, the mental health providers who so many of us have visited. Depression many of us have been in or struggle with. The substance abuse some of us have suffered through on route to our acceptance of ourselves.
Those who have paved a way out of the depths of despair can help those who are drowning in it. While there is a greater acceptance today then the 30 some years ago when I was entering adulthood, today society can still be very hard for us, and the accepting wives are still a minority.
For those of us struggling with our partners about it, and not receiving the sunshine from the rest of the world we have read about, remember it is the internet, and we wouldn't be here if it was all just sooo wonderful, and neither would they.