Help Elyse Overcome Barriers to Transition Care

Hello friends, foes, and internet strangers!

For those of you who don’t already know, ~surprise!~, I’m a transgender woman. This isn’t a coming out post— I’ve been out for a while now— but I generally don’t like making my being trans a big deal or anything. It’s one of the many parts of my identity that comprise who I am, after all. However, with International Trans Day of Visibility ️‍⚧️ coming up on March 31st, I thought I’d make that part of me a little more visible than usual! And with good reason, as well.

I don’t know if y’all have heard lately, but being trans right now is…

*checks news*

Uh… how do I say this? Difficult? Scary?

The constant sound of a fork in a garbage disposal running through one’s brain?

Yeah, something like that.

Needless to say, I’ve reached a point where it’s time for me to face my fear of asking for help. After years of putting off significant transition milestones to just barely scrape by in this ✨~economy~✨, I’m starting this GoFundMe to finally seek the transition and medical care I need. Specifically, the transition and medical care that I can’t receive without navigating a Kafkaesque labyrinth of insurance appeals.

I’ll spare you the trauma performance, and keep things quick and simple. The past several years have sucked. Big time.

First, there was the pandemic and inflation. Then, there was the WGA & SAG-AFTRA strikes. Then, the film/TV streaming bubble burst, causing a paradigm shifting industry-wide contraction. During that time, I was unemployed for 18 months straight, my car was totaled by a drunk driver, and my partner and I took on over $20,000 in emergency financial assistance and used car loans.

Basically, every time I thought to myself, “Thank god that’s over with. Now I can finally get back to living life! ‍‍‍‍”, I was walloped in the face with another financial incident.

With the arrival of the new federal administration and their draconian executive orders targeting trans people, the message finally got through my stubborn skull that I can’t keep putting my life on hold any longer. I can’t keep waiting for things to get “better enough” for me to get back to living my life again. And that I won't be able to do this on my own.

I need help from my community and to overcome the shame of asking for it.

If my prior experiences are to serve as any indication, it’s clear that I’m going to have to pay up front and out-of-pocket for my transition procedures while combating my insurance’s appeals process. That’s why I need your help. I’m asking for $8,000, with an initial goal of $5,000; while this won’t be enough to cover most procedures, it will be enough for me to start taking the first major steps to overcome these obstacles. These funds will make a massive difference in my ability to start seeking that care again and provide the support and safety net I need to win the long-term appeals journey against my insurance.

Trans people are hyper visible in a way right now that hurts us. Living my life as fully as I can is how I can resist the current threats in the world. I’m not going to let discriminatory politics and rhetoric snatch away the chance for me to live joyfully in my body. If you can and are able, I ask for you to please help me on my transition journey.

If you don’t prefer GoFundMe, you can also donate to my Venmo, @elysianwilds, or Cash App, $elysianwilds.

With love and gratitude,

Elyse