My name is Violet Rose. I’m 21 years old, a trans woman living in southwest Florida, and I am asking for help getting to safety. The area I live in is very hostile to trans people and my current living situation is extremely volatile and insecure. My mom, whom I haven’t seen in over four years, lives in Colorado - one of the places most accepting of people like me in the United States. When my mom left Florida, my grandma stepped in and taught me to cook, showed me what love looks like, and held me together when everything else was falling apart. My grandmother died ten months after my mom left and I grieve her every single day. This happened mere months after Hurricane Ian struck our home, nearly destroying it. Hurricanes Helene and Milton finished the job and looters picked over what was left including my guitars. I lost almost everything. In 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned and my dad lost his job, which made things dramatically worse. AI has further curtailed his ability to support me. My mom has been fighting potentially life-threatening health issues and I need to be there to help her. She needs me close. I need to be close. We both need me to be safe. I am an aspiring writer, musician, and cook. I live with treatment-resistant depression, panic disorder, seizures, and insomnia. All the result of years of inability to access psychiatric care. I am uninsured. I cannot apply for disability. I cannot drive. I have fought for years for access to proper psychiatric treatment and have been failed repeatedly by a system that was never built for someone like me. As a trans woman in southwest Florida in 2026, I do not feel safe. I have faced discrimination at the federal level. The Department of State repeatedly rejected my passport application despite overwhelming documentation of my legal name and gender change, even after repeatedly escalating my case. I was supposed to have had my surgeries years ago following my diagnosis.

My current living situation is one I cannot describe in full detail for my own safety and out of love and respect for the people here who care. What I can tell you is this: I live close to someone whose behavior toward me has crossed every line that exists. I am harassed, manipulated, and I have been threatened violently. I cannot be alone in a room with them without paralyzing fear and anxiety. Being humiliated and dehumanized is just another day. I've interviewed for countless jobs but no one wants to hire someone like me. I have a father who is doing everything he can. I have a brother who believes in me and fights for me. What I need is the cost of transport and enough to sustain myself while I find work and get on my feet, to get somewhere I can finally heal, to help my mom heal, to build something real, and to start my life. My grandma believed in me before she died. My dad believes in me. My brother believes in me. Even my kitties Pip and Odd believe in me. I’m asking you to believe in me too. Please help me to find my place and reach my mom before it's too late.