Ethan's Top Surgery Recovery Fund

Ethan Malpica-Santiago is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hello hello, my name is Ethan! I'm a Puerto Rican, transmasculine artist, and I'm asking for a little help covering recovery expenses post top surgery.

Why am I fundraising?

This whole transitioning thing is hard work, lol. I'm lucky to have an amazing chosen family and partner, however, getting the medical care I need has been nothing short of an uphill battle. After many, many, many years of absolutely no access to trans healthcare, I had to fight tooth and nail to get insured entirely on my own in a new country, as my parents refused to pay for my college's insurance plan / provide anything other than the most barebones coverage (which most times didn't even cover basic over the counter medications or bloodwork).

I cannot rely on my biological family for financial help. I've managed to make things work on my own - I've been on testosterone for close to 3 years now and live my day to day life as an out and proud transman - however, scrapping together funds to cover things like housing, food, and transportation during recovery has been more of a challenge than I initially expected.

I've always been very relunctant to ask for help. That said, my partner recently pointed out that not allowing myself to try and ask for help from... well, Other People In The World is slightly hipocritical for someone who's always ranting about the importance of community.

So here we are. Asking for a hand. Or a quarter. Either one. :')

What are you doing with the money?

Like I briefly mentioned earlier, all of the funds raised will be put towards covering housing, food, and transportation. I work an on-campus job that has provided me with some savings, however, I will not be able to work during winter break and what I have is not nearly enough to cover everything.

So, to break it down, the funds would go to:

Airbnb / Housing Fees - Perhaps the biggest hurdle I'm dealing with, as I don't live near the hospital where the procedure is being done. Ideally, I'd be able to book a place to stay nearby to make follow-up appointments / unexpected complications easier to deal with, rather than having to travel 3+ hours fresh out of surgery. The minimum amount of time I'd have to stay would be a week to a week and a half, which already racks up the cost well over the 1,000 mark. Being able to breathe easy knowing I actually have a place to rest and recover post surgery would be a god-send.

Train tickets / Uber / Taxi Fees - Like I mentioned, the only surgeon covered by my insurance that was within realistic traveling distance is still hours away. I don't have a car, so I'd love to have some help covering trips back and forth from the hospital.

Food / General Necessities - Y'all, living is expensive..... Last thing the money would go to is quite literally just survival items and recovery necessities, such as medication, groceries, etc.

Who even are you?

To give you a little insight into who I am past this slightly sterile peek into my financial troubles, I'm a third-year college student currently studying to... Do cool things with cool people! (Woah.)

I'm very involved with the arts - particularly theater/musical theater and visual design. I co-run a student-led musical theater production company, and have most recently finished up directing one of my dream musicals, Rent! We do other cool things like hosting free Broadway trips and producing original, student-written musicals. It's a fun time! I am also an actor and singer in my own right; The cover picture for this fundraiser is from our mainstage production of Urinetown, where I had the priviledge of playing the sleazy tycoon Mr. Cladwell (very much wishing his on-stage riches transferred to real life rn, haha).

Before college, I intended to go into the animation industry. Though it's not what I'm currently pursuing, I still love drawing, and have expanded into doing costume design as well (my first "professional" job within theater was actually costume designing an opera showcase set in the 1970s... It was an incredibly fun project. Very groovy. 10/10).

Big brother to two biologically related nerds, father-esc figure to a dozen other little queer goblins, lover of bread (big lover of bread. Please talk to me about bread. Help me buy bread for recovery I beg).... Yeah. I do things, sometimes.

If you've read this far, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I hope you have a wonderful day, and that you consider donating. Every little bit helps! <3

Fun Pictures! Look if you'd like to see some of the cool stuff I mentioned above!

Me! In Urinetown! Wow!