Hi there, my name is Vale and I’m a disabled, trans, neurodivergent person just trying to get by in the world. This GFM is set up for two things: to help me get a pair of glasses, and to help me gather funds to move across the country.

This is what’s going on:

I’ve been blind my entire life. I had better vision when I was younger, but over time it’s degenerated due to various complications including glaucoma and botched retinal detachment surgeries.

For a long time, my eyesight was pretty stable. Then, in 2023-2024 I lost a lot of sight in my left eye, which is currently the only eye I can see out of. This was because my glaucoma started fluctuating really badly again, but every time I tried to see someone about it, my pressure wouldn’t be bad enough to worry about. I had to keep pressing people for a year and a half before anyone really took me seriously, and by then I’d lost a chunk of what little sight I had left.

Recently, I went to a low vision specialist, and he could fit me with a pair of glasses that gave me enough sight to read the top letter on the eye chart, and more than that, be able to see my mother’s expression from more than a foot away. It was amazing.

The thing is that those glasses are going to cost me $1300 and my insurance isn’t going to cover any of it. We’re going to reach out to our local Lions Club, but we can’t assume they’re going to give us anything, or how much they’ll be able to cover.

I can’t really afford to get them otherwise. The only money I get is my monthly disability, and paying for these glasses would leave me less than $100 to live on .

I would love to get any help at all to put money aside to cover these glasses. They’re going to be an enormous quality of life change for me, and I want this so badly. I’m going to be trying to make this happen in as many ways as I can, but a lot of my options leave me in more debt, and, as I mentioned, I’m trying to move.

I currently live in Florida, which, as a trans, disabled, first gen American, isn’t a great place to be. I don’t really live in an accessible area, and I truly don’t feel comfortable or safe remaining here.

I have the chance to move to Seattle and live with my partner, but gathering the funds to make that happen is a struggle for both of us. He’s a full-time student and does freelance work around that, and I only receive my disability. While Seattle is an expensive city, we’ve determined that if we’re living together, I can manage the day-to-day living expenses up there.

The cost to move, though? That’s where our problems come up.

I need to move across the country, and then be able to help put down the setup costs that an apartment will require. We’ll also need to get things like a bed for me, as well as furniture and other such things for the apartment we’d be getting.

Which, well, all of that adds up.

I would love to be able to get any help I can to get funds together to make that happen. My glasses are going to come first, but any money that comes up after I hit that goal is going to go straight towards covering any and all moving and setup costs that might come up.

We are both going to also be trying to put aside money to pay for all of that as well, but that’s going to take us a lot of time, and we both want to get me out of Florida as soon as we possibly can. Hopefully between our efforts and any help we can get here, we’ll be able to make that happen.