Chaska (aka precolumbian) is having her first Facial Feminization Surgery January 19th! Chaska is a multiply marginalized Trans Woman of Color who has struggled to work during the pandemic and could use some financial support through this process. The good news is, it is mostly covered by insurance and taking place in Philadelphia so her and her support team don’t have to travel. Tho she recently found out the surgery will have to be broken up into 3 parts over the course of a year. This fundraiser is to pay for some of the procedures not covered by insurance, aftercare expenses, and loss of income when she cannot work after each surgery. Chaska feels like she has been waiting her whole life for this, and we want to make it as healing and stress-free for her as possible so we are asking you, our community, for support. If you have the means to donate financially, we appreciate it, but sharing the fundraiser on social media and sending other forms of love and support to Chaska is huge too!

For anyone coming to this page who doesn’t know Chaska, she is a DJ under the name precolumbian, co-creator of the rave Seltzer, music-maker, and queer event organizer. She is a Peruvian, trans, queer, disabled, femme, refugee who calls Philly home. She has gifted us with opportunities for joy, connection, healing, and love on the dance floor for over a decade in Philly, NY and around the world. If you know Chaska, you know that she is incredibly generous and caring of her community - between the late-night after party rides, dj lessons and workshops, lending out her equipment, paying artists out of pocket on slow nights, and showcasing other underrepresented DJs. Covid has been very challenging for Chaska’s career and mental health, including the cancellation of her first European tour, and she has been out of work for much of the pandemic. She is feeling hopeful about the impacts of this surgery and the opportunity to be seen and feel more like herself out in the world.

You can read more about her and her work here  and here , and listen to her soundcloud here . 

Her surgeon considers her a “very difficult” case due to the particularities of her bone structure and so to be the safest and most effective, he wants to divide the surgery into 2-3 separate procedures over the course of 15 months and is requiring her to get orthodontics before he can work on the bottom half of her face, adding some unforeseen costs. 

FFS (Facial Feminization Surgery) is thankfully now covered in PA under medicaid as a gender affirming procedure for trans women. Chaska has been in the process of setting this up since 2020, between being on the waitlist, the original surgeon leaving, insurance denying her claim and having to go through a months-long appeal process, it has been a roller coaster and she is excited to finally have a date set.

We are so so thankful to have a really amazing team at Temple’s LGBTQ center advocating for her and making this happen. It is incredibly fortunate that it can happen here in Philly and be mostly covered by insurance. 

The breakdown:

•No work for 8 weeks (first surgery): $3000
•Orthodontic braces: $4000
•Laser hair removal: $3000
•No work for 8 weeks (second surgery): $3000
•House cleaning before and during recovery: $500
•Meals: $500
•Pain relief, edibles, little stuff that adds up: $500
•Gofundme transaction fees: $500

If you would rather send $$ via alternate platforms, you can send to her partner KellyAnne and everything collected will go directly to Chaska (put FFS or Chaska in the memo) and we will update the GFM to reflect the offline donations.
venmo: stitchprism (code 4405)
cashapp: $kellyanne
paypal: stitchprism at gmail

Note: Chaska is not involved in this fundraiser, this is a gift that we'll be presenting to her as she heals, but she does know it is happening and consents to it. 

Thank you so much.
xoxox Chaska's care team