Help Chloe Slate Move to Safety

Hi, I'm Chloe Slate, an author currently living in Indiana. I am also a trans woman, and being a trans person in Indiana is becoming increasingly more perilous, in addition to the overall danger in being one with a public-facing job in a country where anti-trans rhetoric is getting more fervent by the day.

Becoming an author that writes happy, sunny stories that make people feel good was the thing that gave me the push to finally realize that I was a woman a little over a year ago. To say that finding success as an author has changed my life is not even close to an understatement. It literally saved my life.

As 2025 dawned, I was hoping that my work would continue to grow at the rate I had seen in 2024, and that I would be able to move to the Chicago area, where things are at least more favorable for trans people, by the end of the year. But, recently, a lot of things have complicated that...some of it foreseeable and a source of embarrassment on my part, others out of my control.

Primarily, as many authors will attest, income for indie authors is generally down in 2025, and I am no exception. Where I thought I would see extra funds this year has turned into me having to make tough choices about my expenses.

And in the things that embarrass me, my taxes this year are considerably higher than I predicted they would be, leaving me with thousands of dollars in income tax due. I am unsure of how I am going to be able to pay them on their own, and even if I were to be able to manage that, there would be no way I could save up funds for moving at the same time.

I have a lot of conflicting feelings of privilege and shame in even putting up something like this, because I know there are other people in worse situations with more dire needs. But, I also literally don't see other options for myself in being able to continue my current path and make a move to a place that is hopefully more safe and welcoming to me.

The funds from this would go to paying my tax expenses as well as my moving expenses, and while I'm currently too mentally scattered to think about ways I can pay this back to anyone who would find kindness to give to me, I promise I will show my appreciation.

Thank you all. I have been trying to hold onto this for a while to see if it would clear itself up, but now I've realized I need help.