Glasgow Trans Collective Emergency Fund

We are Glasgow Trans Collective.

We are a Glasgow based intra-community support system.

We wanted to create an emergency fund to help trans people flee danger to life.

So we’re going to.

We need new ways and new places to find and care for each other. We’re putting on a series of trans-led events to raise money for our fund and launching our GoFundMe, whilst simultaneously giving trans people an opportunity to meet and foster community.

At the moment, our focus is on creating a fund big enough to realistically support the trans people in Glasgow that need it, so our hotline is not currently active.

While we are creating the fund, we have a Gofundme account that a limited number of people have access to. If you previously donated to our PayPal, we have transferred that money to the Gofundme. This allows us to be transparent about the money coming into the fund.

This was inspired by Edinburgh Trans Femicide Prevention (@edi_tfp), who are doing excellent work in Edinburgh.

WHAT WILL THE FUND BE USED FOR?

To distribute the funds our service will operate as an hotline. This hotline will be available for any trans person (not just members of GTC) in the Greater Glasgow area to use to flee danger. There are no qualifiers for ‘being trans’ and there is no means-testing, we take you at your word.

While we will attempt to direct people to the infrastructure already available (for example shelters), we understand that using these services is often anxiety inducing for trans people who may be exposed to further gendered violence.

Therefore, our priority will be providing immediate accommodation, food and hygiene products for those who contact us.

HOW WILL THE FUND BE DISTRIBUTED?

In terms of physically getting money to people who contact us, this will be done on a case by case basis. We are aware that there might be cases where someone’s finances are monitored, that they may not want to share their deadname or other factors that might contribute to how we support them.

IS THE FUND BEING USED FOR ANYTHING ELSE?

Yes, there a couple of things we as a collective need to be sustainable. Outside of the emergency fund, our most immediate cost is our fundraising events. We are lucky that many venues have offered their spaces and many people have offered to work for free, allowing us to keep costs low. However, in the future we anticipate having to put some money towards our fundraising efforts.

We also have some longer term goals including:

In our initial meeting we discussed allocating funds to access hormones/other healthcare, and putting out community literature. We are currently focussing on supporting trans people fleeing harmful situations and gauging what the need is for that. So no funds are currently going towards that.

WHAT ABOUT TRANSPARENCY?

We are still working out how to be transparent about funds coming in and what they’re used for once the hotline starts up. But we understand this is deeply important for us to be accountable to our community and each other so it is a priority for us before we launch the hotline. The reason we switched to GofundMe is to begin to provide transparency about the funds coming in.

We are reaching out to other collectives to find out how they manage their money, to find out if we want to change this in the future.

We are a member-run initiative and are always open to feedback. If you’re interested in joining to help us shape these ideas send us a message or email.

Thank you so much for your generosity and continued support, solidarity ⚧️