Help Colette Attain Gender Affirming Surgery

UPDATE: Damn, y’all. I was not expecting to get anywhere near what I was asking, let alone so close to the actual estimated cost of the surgery in less than a day. I’ve changed the goal to the actual cost ($7,400) because this is still circulating online, but I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for me.

Rather unexpectedly, I am getting an orchiectomy. Its estimated cost is just north of $7,000, which is a lot of money, and while I am doing my best to raise as much as I can on my own, I could use some help. The full story follows, if you're interested in such a thing, but that's the short version.

This year, eight or so years deep into medical transition, I decided to get an orchiectomy. It's taken a long time to get here because due to insurance concerns and the general instability of my life in Athens, but I got a Cool Job that offers health insurance, moved to North Carolina, and started jumping through the necessary hoops to get the thing done.

Some of those hoops are logistical (starting up with new healthcare providers in a new state) and some of them were financial (my insurance has a high deductible), but I jumped through them diligently, got my letters in order, and wound up with a surgery date of December 4, a whole three days after my insurance would take me out of network, making the surgery financially unobtainable. I planned to wait it out, but yesterday evening I was informed that they could bump me up to November 19th, and I'm going to go ahead and do it.

The reason for doing so isn't entirely fun: nobody really knows what the state of transgender healthcare will be in 2025 and beyond, and if I don't go ahead and do this now, the window may not open again for some time. I wish I had more time to prepare, but whatever — in the grand scheme of things this date opening up is a major blessing for me, and the problems that come with it are navigable.

The goal for this fundraiser is a little less than half of what I've been quoted by UNC. I'd ask for the full number, but there are countless fundraisers like this in the universe for trans people who have less secure situations than mine, whether they're seeking medical care or a means out of their current living situation. I am hoping to cover a lot of this procedure through financial assistance at UNC, by selling my record collection, and through the half dozen or so side hustles I have — without knowing how much any of that will come to, I'm mostly asking for help in making a big financial figure a little less stressful. If you're able to help, thank you! If you can't, no sweat! Either way, thanks for being a part of this weird-ass journey; I can't imagine you'd be reading this far if you didn't know me from one tiny niche of life or another.