My name is Shayy, and I’m creating this fundraiser on behalf of Kay-Hope, who is not only my partner, but also my best friend. Kay is a trans-masc nonbinary queer international student currently residing in Canada, and were born in Punjab, India. They initially came to Canada in search of not only the opportunity to get top surgery, but also to live life authentically and comfortably. What they have realized after some time is while Canada is generally queer friendly, it is not nearly as trans friendly as they anticipated. Searching for a job where their pronouns will be used is more difficult than one would expect, and one hostile work environment after the other has obviously caused constant distress on top of feeling dysphoria every day. Feeling as if you need to explain your very existence on an almost daily basis is tiring at best, and soul crushing at worst. International students pay 3x the cost of Canadian students, which has made saving for an essential and life saving surgery absolutely impossible. Since they are not a permanent resident of Canada, none of the costs of gender affirming surgery is covered, and there is no way to tell how long of a wait there is to receive their PR. Unfortunately, that is time we do not have.

 

Kay studies fine arts and is an artist who lives with OCD and dysphoria, and their art discusses both of these themes in an abstract sense. If you wish to see some of their art, you can visit their art page here .

 

I have tried my best to support them in any way I can, but unfortunately I cannot control everything. I cannot always be there to stand up for them. But setting up this fundraiser is something I absolutely can do. I am doing it for them since constantly being reminded of this and monitoring this page would be exhausting for a person who is just trying to survive each day.

 

It’s difficult to talk about this but I think it’s important, in order to explain the urgency of this fundraiser. The dysphoria Kay experiences is immense. There are days where it is decently tolerable - if you can even call it that - but others where is it unbearable to live through. Those days are becoming more frequent the longer they live like this. Dysphoria will always be present in their life but top surgery will greatly decrease the days where it’s a struggle to live through, and improve their quality of live massively.

 

As time goes on I will post updates, and I will also be posting on my TikTok to try and help get support for them. I’m incredibly grateful to anyone who is able to donate. For those who are unable, reading and sharing helps too!

 

Kay’s smile is truly the sunniest I have ever seen in my entire life. I know the day they have their surgery it will be the brightest anyone has ever seen. It’s all I want. Thank you again for coming along with us on their journey.

If you wish to know more about what being nonbinary is and about dysphoria, please visit these resources:

https://transequality.org/issues/resources/understanding-non-binary-people-how-to-be-respectful-and-supportive

 

https://ourhealthyeg.ca/gender-dysphoria 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/conditions/gender-dysphoria

 

Cost breakdown (approx):

Top surgery: $10,000

Masculinization of the chest: $3000

Pre-op and post-op care: $2000

Disclaimer: The doctor Kay is looking at having their surgery with does not book consultations unless you are financially able to have your top surgery within the next 8 months to a year. The consultation is the only way for them to get a more accurate estimate of the costs. This may result in the fundraiser having the goal changed at some point in the future. Once Kay has received support from here that will realistically allow the surgery within that amount of time, we will be able to book the consultation and update on this page from there at that time.