Please Support Yves: A Trans Black Woman in Crisis

Hi, my name is Yves- a Trans Black Woman living in the South who is urgently raising funds to stop my life from completely falling apart. Specifically, I am asking for help with: Paying for my car + insurance, rent, bills, medication, and storage (which I only have because of housing insecurity) as priority; and if possible, resuming gender-affirming procedures that I’ve had to pause.

Right after I was let go from my job during the pandemic, I was involved in an accident that totaled my car, requiring me to get a new one (as I am not in an area with reliable public transportation.) I was really not in the position to take on such an expense right before beginning surgery and trying to relocate, but I had no choice.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, I was blessed enough to be able to raise enough money to have two gender-affirming surgeries (and many thanks to all of you who helped), but I was still fully unprepared for a few things:

1) The sudden cultural backlash against queer and transgender people which has resulted in less protections for us and rising discrimination. I have been job-hunting for years now, and I’m finding that no one wants to hire me because employers see trans people as a liability. I’ve never had this much of a problem finding work before.;

2) The steep rise in the cost of living, goods, services, food etc due to the pandemic. For example, the cost of surgeries rose by as much as 50% meaning that the money I’d initially raised didn’t spread nearly as far as I hoped it would.;

3) Having my facial feminization surgery delayed by nearly six months which meant that I had to dip into my surgery funds for living expenses prior to surgery when my original plan was to use it during my healing period and right after while looking for work.

4) Experiencing complications from my surgeries that I can’t afford to fix. For instance, I’ve developed capsular contractures in my breasts which causes hard scar tissue to form around the implant and causes me chronic pain and discomfort. This is something that I’ve been afraid to talk about publicly because transphobes could find it and make an example out of me to their vigilante mobs.

Another thing I didn’t talk about much was being effectively homeless while going through surgery and recovery: living in motels and sleeping on couches while healing. And since then, my whole life has revolved around the threat of homelessness. My whole life is in that storage unit. I have put my transition on hold, sometimes even rationing my hormones in order to keep costs down. And I hope to someday be able to resume.

I thought that my life would get better after embarking on this journey- and in some ways it has; however, in many other ways (mostly outside of my control), it has become much, much worse to the point of bordering on unlivable. I am at the end of my rope, and I am asking for someone to please throw me a lifeline.

So if you’ve ever learned anything from me, if you’ve gotten to know me, if I’ve impacted your life in any way, and even if you are a stranger, I am desperately asking for your help right now.

Thank you again for everything,

Yves