I need help staying housed.

Hello, my name is Katherine Lorelei.

I am a Transgender woman of color and trans activist living in Oklahoma. For the past 13 months or so I have been working as one of the two leaders of the End Kiwi Farms campaign, as well as a number of other small activism projects.

Here is what Liz Fong-Jones has to say about my work:

“We would not have achieved the progress we have so far without Kat’s resolve and leadership. She has transformed a rag-tag group of volunteers into an organized force. She is instrumental to these efforts.

She has selflessly contributed her time and put herself in harm's way to protect our community.”

Unfortunately, while I am an effective activist, I am fully disabled so traditional employment is difficult to come by as well as maintain. I’m a torture and rape victim, so I suffer from severe cPTSD.

I am now facing homelessness unless I get some immediate help. My utilities are all at shut off notices and I am 3 months behind on rent.

My original purpose in this fundraiser was to move out of state, but because of the dire circumstances I now find myself in, I need to refocus on survival at this time. I still need to move, but right now I need to not lose what little stability I have.

I am begging you, please help me. I do not want to end up homeless, I will not survive it. I’m scared of what will happen to my cats if we lose our home.

I’m leaving the original text below, as that’s still the long term goal…

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Hello, my name is Katherine Lorelei. You might know me from the recent article in the Washington Post about my work with the End Kiwi Farms project (Read it here). I’m a transgender woman of color and activist currently located in Oklahoma. My ongoing work in Trans advocacy as well as some future projects that have yet to be announced have led me to understand that my current location is not the place I can do the most good.

2024 will be a critical election cycle for trans people. If we lose much more ground at the federal level we will be facing very harsh and potentially deadly circumstances in large swaths of this country. We need to start making forward progress soon or this will be the fate of far too many of us. More grassroots advocacy work in Washington DC is needed.

Too often, the narratives about transgender people in the halls of government and interview rooms of mass media are set by white, cisgender people who don’t understand or have the resources to understand what life is like for trans people, especially trans people of color, in this country. My goal, alongside my colleagues and collaborators, is to bridge that gap by making sure that there is always the right information at hand for anyone helping us fight to maintain and gain back our basic civil rights.

So how is this done? Several ways. If we look at how Erin Reed started gaining a voice, the strategy is similar and adaptable. Things like reporting who is sponsoring bills, who is voting how, who is pushing what. Calling out hypocrisy, or praising efforts to help us.

That might sound minor, but as Erin has shown, this gives us a powerful voice to shape the entire conversation landscape. The idea is that people want to have approval or avoid our disapproval.

Working with members of Congress and Senators to help them better understand the plight trans people face is a large goal. I have connections in higher academia that can provide research backed information for legislators and their staff. Compiling, for example, the work of Florence Ashley and Christa Peterson on dismantling the oft cited works of Kathleen Stock or other well established transphobic researchers is great, but is often in a blog or even just posts on social media. Compiling such information into more digestible and easily distributable forms for staffers to read and pass on the information is critical to our work.

In order to be effective at the national scale, I need to be close to these halls of power. I need to move to Washington DC. Sadly, one of the many reasons that more trans activists cannot simply up and move to where our experiences will do the most good or make us the most safe, is that we lack the support and funds to do so. In order to make this move, considering I will not have immediate full time employment and am living with disability, I will need significant funding.

I need at least $50,000 to cover moving expenses including household goods and the funds necessary to convince a landlord that I can support myself through a lease. More than that would help immensely with things like my living expenses or needed medical care, but $50,000 is the minimum needed for rent and moving expenses. Housing in the DC metro area is famously expensive, and one of the primary barriers to entry for people not born to the upper class. If you support my work and believe in this mission, please consider donating what you can. Thank you for your time and consideration!