Help Chael Rose Survive Union-Busting

Hi, I'm Chael (shale) and I'm an autistic transfemme living (rather, doing my best to survive) in Austin TX. As many of you are probably already aware, the cost of living here has been on a steady climb for years now, and since the pandemic began it has skyrocketed even further. My housing co-op was bought out last year, and while I was planning to begin traveling to find a new place to live, mental health struggles and Texas' premature cancelation of pandemic unemployment left me unable to follow through on or fund those plans. I can't afford to leave a city that I can't afford to live in.

As you may or may not also be aware, being trans is expensive. Being autistic is expensive. I have to spend a significant amount of money on a regular basis to maintain the neurotransmitter and hormone levels I need to function, and I am fundamentally incompatible with most of the lines of employment that would allow one to live safely & comfortably in this city of tech bros and condos that used to be a town of artists. I've been fired for being autistic and not operating in the way that employers uneducated on neurodiversity demanded. I am not safe in many customer service roles, especially in a state like Texas where, even in Austin, many members of the general public literally wish for my death and erasure simply for existing proudly outside of a toxic & manufactured gender binary.

I have a job now that I am safe and happy in, but it unfortunately is insufficient to meet my full financial needs. I've been wanting to create a Patreon as a platform to share my various creative and educational endeavors and generate an additional income, but I don't have the tools or skills to record, edit, produce, or market any of those projects, and don't have the resources to access any of them. I can't afford to do the work that would allow me to afford to live.

All that is to say, I have found myself in what feels like an impossible situation, and the only way I can see out of it is through community support. I am currently over the $7000 maximum on my credit card and have overdrafted my checking account. I don't get another paycheck for a week and a half from the creation of this fundraiser, and that will be a drop in the bucket of expenses and interest in which I continue to drown. Immediate aid to my Venmo (chaerodactyl) would be deeply appreciated so I can pay my current bills and buy groceries, but I am setting this up in the hopes that I can finally get my head above water and build a sustainable craft of the work I love & am skilled in.

Please help me, so I can get back to doing what I love - helping others.

I'm so tired of treading water, but I refuse to let myself slip under and disappear.