Help Julia Chamberlain Access Essential Surgery

Last year, I was fired from my development position with a non-profit organization when I attempted to receive gender-affirming surgery through my employer-based insurance plan.

Although I was a skilled and dedicated employee, I was routinely mistreated by management and several of my colleagues. From the start of my employment, I was subjected to constant misgendering, insults, rumors about my sexual orientation and genital configuration, transphobic jokes, contradictory and impossible work standards, and in one instance, I was told by a staff attorney that I should not be using the same bathroom as her. Although this treatment has a disastrous effect on my mental health, I had no choice but to tolerate it for the sake of my surgery. My insurance covered an excellent surgeon in NYC and I spent the better part of 2024 consulting, preparing, and scheduling for surgery with him. When I attempted to go on medical leave, management denied it on the grounds that it was a “frivolous” and “cosmetic” surgery that was “not appropriate or acceptable”. My supervisor expressed great hostility to the idea of gender-affirming care and then lied about my eligibility for FMLA and claimed it was an “organization policy” that I could not go on medical leave within my first year of employment – this too was a lie. Very shortly after this, I was suddenly fired.

The situation regarding gender-affirming care in the United States is now dire: the House of Representatives has passed a bill that would ban all such care from being covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and ACA plans. This means that receiving bottom surgery using insurance will soon be next to impossible. My only option now is to receive surgery outside of the country and I have found a highly skilled, reputable surgeon in Portugal. His name is Marcio Littleton, and his fees are dramatically cheaper than any surgeon in the United States: around 30K USD as opposed to 100K+ for any reputable American surgeon. I have chosen Dr. Littleton not only for the quality of his care, but the comparatively low cost of his service. Not only is this a more manageable cost, but it would prevent the Trump Administration from interfering with my surgery. Not only is seeing Dr.Littleton the safest, but most cost-effective option also: it has become my only option.

This surgery is nothing short of lifesaving for me: it is not cosmetic, elective, or in any sense optional. I require not just to truly live, but even just to survive. My current anatomy is so repulsive to me that I cannot shower, use the bathroom, or even get dressed without extreme feelings of revulsion, shame, and disgust – symptoms that have a physical manifestation in the form of vomiting and constant heart palpitations. My genital dysphoria is nothing short of completely debilitating and it has begun to destroy my physical health as well. I cannot live as I am now, and this surgery is the only way to save my life. Gender dysphoria is a sickness unto death if it is not treated and the scientific literature is clear that gender-affirming care is the only proven, reliable treatment. Vaginoplasty is the last step I need to take to complete my transition; it is a surgery I have dreamed of having since I was 14 years old. It is, in every sense of the word, necessary.

I will never receive justice from my former employer. Instead, I ask you to help me seek the redress I sorely need. This fundraiser is to cover the cost of surgery with Dr.Littleton and associated fees, such as travel, lodging, and food while I recover in Portugal. I have zero family support, very meagre income, and no assets of any kind to put toward this cost. More so, a portion of income will soon be forcibly taken from me via the Trump Administration's wage garnishment for student loan recipients. Still, I will strive with all of my courage and strength to save my own life so that I might help others. A terrible thing is happening to transgender people in the United States; we are nothing more than another natural variation of the human condition and yet we are portrayed as monsters to further an ideology of hate. I was the victim of this hate, and I ask with all of my heart to help me seek what I need not only to survive, but to live as a free and dignified member of society.