Help a Young Trans Person Access Long-Awaited Top Surgery

Hi everyone,

I’m posting this on behalf of a close friend’s 18-year-old son - an extraordinary, resilient young person who is finally getting the gender-affirming top surgery he urgently needs after months of setbacks. (Keeping the family anonymous due to the current political climate)

After being approved for surgery through different healthcare institutions, he was repeatedly let down. First, Lurie Children’s Hospital canceled gender affirming surgeries for 18 and under in January, citing changes in policy following Trump’s executive orders targeting trans healthcare access. Following Lurie’s decisions, Chicago institutions have continued implementing barriers for trans youth to accessing the healthcare they need - Northwestern, UChicago, Rush, to name a few. Just last week, UIC healthcare turned him away after having gotten to the last step of scheduling the surgery date.

But this week, there’s hope.

His badass mom worked around the clock calling private institutions, and, miraculously, found a surgeon able to get him in this Thursday. The downside? It’s all out-of-pocket. The surgery will cost $11,000, and this family is scrambling to make it happen in time.

This surgery is not optional. He and his family have been waiting and fighting for this for almost five years. The emotional toll of the delays, especially for a young trans person at a critical age, has been immense. He deserves the peace, safety, and healing this surgery will finally bring. And all trans youth deserve a society where they have the ways and means to be unapologetically themselves, where they can be at peace in their bodies, where they know that they are supported in times of need.

All funds raised will go directly to the cost of the surgery. If you’re in a position to give, even just a few dollars, or share this with others, it would mean the world to this family.

Let’s help make this happen; let’s show this family that they are supported, let’s show trans youth that there is hope, and let’s show oppressors that they cannot take away trans joy.

With love and gratitude,

Kate

(friend of the family)