My name is James. I’m a trans man raising funds for top surgery.

For the nearly 10 years that I’ve been out as FtM, I’ve used a binder basically every day. Gender dysphoria around my chest causes daily anxiety and distress and makes interfacing with the rest of the world incredibly difficult if I don’t. Unfortunately, this has slowly resulted in diminished lung capacity and frequent rib and upper back pain. I can’t really stop binding, though, both because of my own extreme psychiatric discomfort and (more recently) the need to cater to the comfort of others and to conform to cis masculinity for safety reasons. (I work in the OR, which for me means changing in the men’s locker room, and with the world going the way that it is…the fewer feathers I ruffle, the better.) So, as I’m stuck constantly choosing between pain and other pain, I think it would benefit me Immensely to undergo a double mastectomy, and the sooner I can do it, the better.

My insurance doesn’t cover chest masculinization surgeries for treatment of gender dysphoria, unfortunately, so I’m having to pay out of pocket, and my job pays pretty well, but not well enough to save up the surgery fees, hotel fees for the week my mom (who is helping me with transport and the first part of my recovery) and I need to stay in Plano (where I’m planning to have surgery), and household bills for the roughly two months I would be out of work. I’m exploring other options for supplementing my own savings, like CareCredit and personal loans, but I could really use some help.

If you can spare a little cash, great! I appreciate it immensely! I’ll think of you every time I scale a flight of stairs without losing my breath! But if not, I totally understand; I’m one guy in a sea of trans guys crowdfunding to get surgery, and money’s tight for everyone. But I’d still really appreciate it if you could share the donation link for me. It all helps!