My name is Charlie and I am a 33-year-old nonbinary transmasculine person (they/he pronouns) who is preparing for a gender affirming surgical procedure that I've been wanting since I hit puberty, 22 years ago. I will be adding more of my story here shortly but wanted to introduce myself for now and give a brief outline of what I'm seeking fundraising assistance with.

On June 17th 2026, I will be getting top surgery to relieve decades of dysphoria and chronic pain from attempting to minimize and bind my chest for the majority of my life. I am only able to take about 2 weeks of paid leave from work, though I may need to take additional weeks of short-term disability (with a 40% pay cut), depending on how the surgery and my healing goes. I am a licensed social worker working in community mental health, at a non-profit serving LGBTQ and other marginalized youth in Detroit. I love my job, but due to the nature of my work and my debt from the degrees I needed to obtain in order to get here, I am living very paycheck-to-paycheck and do not have any funds on hand at present to cover the procedure or related recovery costs, especially if I need to take temporary short-term disability. I considered continuing to put off the procedure until I'm able to save up enough to cover the costs but am choosing to prioritize my physical and mental health during a time of uncertainty about the future of gender affirming care in the USA by moving forward with it and doing my best to ask for help carrying the load.

While I don't expect donations to cover the entire out-of-pocket cost of my top surgery, I am setting my goal high just in case! I will be attempting to work out a payment plan with my surgeon's medical system billing office, for any remaining costs that I am not able to cover with funds raised from this campaign. Below, I've attached screenshots of the estimate I received today for the main procedure's costs, with certain personal information redacted for my safety/privacy. You may notice that this estimate is lower than the amount I am asking for - here's a breakdown of what else I've included in my total goal amount:

Here is the overview of what the main procedure will cost. A detailed breakdown is in the campaign photos!

I am not the greatest at reaching out for help, but I also know that I cannot receive it if I do not make myself vulnerable in asking for it. I am grateful in advance for any donations or signal boosts this campaign receives. I will return soon when I have a more detailed breakdown of the bulleted financial items, and some reflections/writing I'd like to share about my gender identity journey and what this surgery means to me. For now, thank you for taking the time to read this! :)

P.S. I recently found this picture of myself from 5th grade, around the time I (and unfortunately, the mean ass girls on my soccer team, lol) realized I was probably transgender. Shoutout to that little dude, they knew what was up way back when and I'm sure he'd be thrilled to know I'm getting surgery in a month and a half.