Mari’s top surgery recovery fundraiser

Mari Chavez is a Los Angeles native and former New Orleans local who is finally receiving top surgery on March 8th. They will be coming back to New Orleans for a month for their doctor's appointments, surgery, and first couple of weeks of recovery. I'm fundraising to ensure that Mari does not have to go back to work just two weeks post-op and can be comfortable in their travel period - and more than anything I just want Mari to be comfortable at home.

 

No one embarking on gender-affirming surgery should have to work so soon after the date, and Mari's personal experience of moving home to Los Angeles has proven to be more difficult than we hoped. Why does a person born and raised in LA, whose family was born and raised in LA and whose heart is in LA, have to struggle just to reclaim their space on their land? Why do white folks who move to LA thrive when they don't have roots and blood in that land? Humans are meant to be tender, not resilient; and despite the strength they're showing, they deserve a break to just once feel comfortable and to have time to heal.

 

Over the past couple of years, while fostering and maintaining the New Orleans Community Fridges, Mari has experienced the depth of loss and hardship that we would hope someone so beloved would never have to feel. Their father passed away on January 6th, 2021 of COVID-19 despite his scuba instructor lungs. Shortly after this devastating departure, Mari suffered sudden hearing loss while at work and swiftly lost their dream job without sensitivity, empathy or justice. They still have not regained hearing in their left ear, which is now functioning at 16% efficacy. A few short weeks after this trauma, their 11-year old cat, Snoose, was diagnosed with heart disease and took her last breath in the arms of her beloved parent and companion of over a decade. The shock of these losses pushed Mari to make a decision: is New Orleans still right for them, or is it time to return to their roots and reconnect with family and ancestry in Los Angeles?

 

I wish this were an easy move. I wish top surgery were easier to obtain under Medicaid. The blessing that it is available in Baton Rouge is a massive relief, but the fact that there is no support for aftercare, mental health sustenance, paid leave, or transportation is one of many disappointments of the american health care system. They deserve more. Everyone who embarks on this gender-affirming journey deserves more. As Mari's platonic life partner I'm of the opinion that they deserve the absolute best. They shouldn't have to be so tired after a shift that they just go straight to bed - work to live, live to work is not a sustainable environment and no healthy human being should have to function with such resilience. big F you to late stage capitalism. They, and you, deserve rest.

 

Mari is remarkable. They are a creator. Everything they touch and hold in their star-studded hands turns to a breathtaking representation of aching beauty, community, tenderness, fulfillment, and love. Mari is a caretaker, but now, we will be taking care of them.

 

I can only hope that the love our community has for Mari can sustain them through this huge life development. I urge white comrades to come through; folks who have generational wealth, job security, hiring privilege to the front. Folks who are cisgender and folks who are straight, come to the front. White transplants to Los Angeles to the front.

 

I cannot stress this enough: White. People. To. The. Front.

 

We take care of each other. Please join me in showing Mari how close they are held.

 

also:

Venmo: @buymesecretthai