O'Connor's possessions
Donation protected
We are the O’Connors.
Our story is long so please bear with me.
I have been disabled since 2002 with a severe case of fibromyalgia.
In 2013 my husband started transition from female to male in earnest. He had been living in his proper gender socially since 2007 but the time had finally come that he could have access to hormone replacement therapy. Due to this his parents kicked us out of the home we were helping pay for with them. They refused to accept their child as he is. This put all 4 of us on the street and our tale of struggle and hardship started. We bounced thru hotels. Mostly supported by my mother. In the end we ended up moving to Richmond Virginia where my mother lives. We all moved into her little apartment and started looking for a house that could hold us all. During the 6 months we lived there we were often treated badly by the other people in the complex. From our car being slightly vandalized to my husband having a gun drawn on him on Transgender Day of Remembrance. We ended up having to get a restraining order on the upstairs neighbor, who pulled the gun. In march of 2014 my mother was able to find a house in one of the outlaying counties. Just when we thought our issues had ended they only got worse.
My husband use to be a vocal activist for transgender rights and visibility. Fear for our children as brought this to an end to this. When we moved to Amelia my husband appeared on TV talking about being Transgender. The next day someone removed the lug nuts from one of our rear truck tires in a parking lot in a way we did not notice. If we had reached the road before the tire fell off we would have been badly hurt. Luckily it didn’t wait that long and we lost the tire in the parking lot. This was just the start. The people of the county started to avoid us in public and our mail box was repeatedly destroyed. The police didn’t do anything about any of it. Just tsked at us and within weeks of the truck issue the phrase “In God we Trust” appeared on the back of all the police cars for the sheriff’s department. Due to catastrophic financial issue that resulted from multiple issues both within the family unit and without. We lost the house and had to move out. My mother was able to find space with friends and we were offered a place with old friends in Arkansas.
Things got worse instead of better. The details of a lot of this can be found in my husband’s blog posts:
https://onestepfromchaos.com/2016/10/05/welcome-to-chaos/
https://onestepfromchaos.com/2016/12/21/no-one-bothered-to-stop/
https://onestepfromchaos.com/2016/12/25/into-the-fray/
https://onestepfromchaos.com/2016/12/28/chaos-theory/
https://onestepfromchaos.com/2017/01/08/exhausted/
Long story short we were saved by the wonderful people that have become our friends here in New York. But in our escape we left behind everything we owned except a duffle bag each and our car.
We have made one trip to save our animals but everything else is still there and some still on the property we stayed. Our things are not safe and we need them to do repairs on the camper we have been given.
The trip will be made May 19-22. How much of our things we can get will be in direct relation to how much money we can raise/have for the trip.
Our story is long so please bear with me.
I have been disabled since 2002 with a severe case of fibromyalgia.
In 2013 my husband started transition from female to male in earnest. He had been living in his proper gender socially since 2007 but the time had finally come that he could have access to hormone replacement therapy. Due to this his parents kicked us out of the home we were helping pay for with them. They refused to accept their child as he is. This put all 4 of us on the street and our tale of struggle and hardship started. We bounced thru hotels. Mostly supported by my mother. In the end we ended up moving to Richmond Virginia where my mother lives. We all moved into her little apartment and started looking for a house that could hold us all. During the 6 months we lived there we were often treated badly by the other people in the complex. From our car being slightly vandalized to my husband having a gun drawn on him on Transgender Day of Remembrance. We ended up having to get a restraining order on the upstairs neighbor, who pulled the gun. In march of 2014 my mother was able to find a house in one of the outlaying counties. Just when we thought our issues had ended they only got worse.
My husband use to be a vocal activist for transgender rights and visibility. Fear for our children as brought this to an end to this. When we moved to Amelia my husband appeared on TV talking about being Transgender. The next day someone removed the lug nuts from one of our rear truck tires in a parking lot in a way we did not notice. If we had reached the road before the tire fell off we would have been badly hurt. Luckily it didn’t wait that long and we lost the tire in the parking lot. This was just the start. The people of the county started to avoid us in public and our mail box was repeatedly destroyed. The police didn’t do anything about any of it. Just tsked at us and within weeks of the truck issue the phrase “In God we Trust” appeared on the back of all the police cars for the sheriff’s department. Due to catastrophic financial issue that resulted from multiple issues both within the family unit and without. We lost the house and had to move out. My mother was able to find space with friends and we were offered a place with old friends in Arkansas.
Things got worse instead of better. The details of a lot of this can be found in my husband’s blog posts:
https://onestepfromchaos.com/2016/10/05/welcome-to-chaos/
https://onestepfromchaos.com/2016/12/21/no-one-bothered-to-stop/
https://onestepfromchaos.com/2016/12/25/into-the-fray/
https://onestepfromchaos.com/2016/12/28/chaos-theory/
https://onestepfromchaos.com/2017/01/08/exhausted/
Long story short we were saved by the wonderful people that have become our friends here in New York. But in our escape we left behind everything we owned except a duffle bag each and our car.
We have made one trip to save our animals but everything else is still there and some still on the property we stayed. Our things are not safe and we need them to do repairs on the camper we have been given.
The trip will be made May 19-22. How much of our things we can get will be in direct relation to how much money we can raise/have for the trip.
Organizer and beneficiary
Emily Chase O'Connor
Organizer
Wynantskill, NY
Aydan O'Connor
Beneficiary
