Support Black Trans Financial Liberation

I'm Ganesha Gold Buffalo, a Southern, Fat, Disabled, Black Indigenous, TwoSpirited, Intersex, Gender-Nonconforming Trans Woman, community healer and mediator, national organizer and activist, and performer. I have an essential ask for you today...

Lately, I've wanted to celebrate the year we're leaving behind, but truth be told, it was a horrible year, and it has left me on the edge of giving up the entire time. The portals to healing have been there, undoubtedly, but so far between, I've just felt emptied of resilience afterward. I've survived COVID four times now as an immunocompromised person, and this exhaustion with existence has solidified into health issues. My immune system has never been so compromised. And past fundraising attempts have proven mostly unsuccessful. For instance, my very last fundraiser, which this is continuing from was only 35% successful even with me begging and extending the deadline four times.

I've wanted to make this for a while, but every time I started to, something else would happen, and my capacity would leave.

As some of you may know, I was let go from my job of three years that I helped build from its inception, Black Trans Task Force, which is the leadership of Lavender Rights Project, in the Spring. I was to receive severance, but I refused to sign an NDA, and the offer became null and void. I would have received something to the tune of $16,000. This created major financial strains on me (given that I had just moved states) that are still plaguing me and would have left me destitute without community support. As we know, in the nonprofit industrial complex, it's common for individuals to be ousted who are deemed "too radical" or "too critical" of operations.

Immediately following this, I became the subject of an online supremacist campaign against myself and other Trans activists that used footage from an online presentation I had led for the same organization a year prior. A few months later, I was delivered a death threat that had been sent to this previous employer, and I was forced to implement all of my security protocols.

I've been financially unstable and housing insecure my entire life. This will create an opportunity to finally be liberated from that by having enough of my expenses covered for long enough to build a self-sustaining foundation and safety net for myself. While most people I know won't have this opportunity, they still have regular access to partner and networking support structures that I don't, and may never, have due to their proximity to desirability privileges.

During a period of traumatic stress before my dismissal, I developed a panic disorder, Agoraphobia, Hyperhidrosis, and stress-induced Alopecia. I've experienced permanent hair loss over nearly half my crown, and my hairline has changed. I continue to lose clumps every month. I have tried everything and am still trying, but there's no denying that this entire experience has left me with lasting physical ailments. From the point of my dismissal until now, I have had no health insurance either. Fortunately, I acquired employment immediately following this incident and am awaiting insurance to activate early next year. I've been self-treating and utilizing every ounce of my knowledge of natural medicine for these ailments this entire time because I need care now, regardless of whether I can afford it.

To add insult to injury, I've been issued a debt to the IRS of $8,000, was forced to take out a loan (my first ever) for $1,700 for a home security system and survival needs following an attack, and have had to pay for all of my apartment repairs. In addition, I had to pay for all my travel and lodging for job-related trainings due to our limited funding, and a recent car towing. I have been caring for my mother following a health crisis and car accident (she will also likely depend on some of these funds post-surgery). I've been hemorrhaging money.

I moved to Miami initially for many reasons. The most serious was that I had been experiencing severe domestic abuse by my mother's partner while back in my hometown in Tennessee following the pandemic. Miami has been a haven and also an immense expense. I have a one-person support system here and not much else. I am largely isolated from community out here for my own safety. However, this means I still haven't been physically able to unpack most of my belongings, as I've had to do it all alone. I need funds to pay for help. Seven months of disordered space with limited access to my belongings severely impacts my mental health.

On top of all this, I've recently lost a ceremonial elder and teacher and don't really know how to process it right now. None of this is to derive pity or sympathy from any of you. Only to inform and, most transparently, ask for help. I've been trying to do it alone this whole time, and my faculties are exhausted. If I cannot make this fundraising goal in the next couple of months, I will be forced to get a third job, such as driving for Uber, and I simply do not have the immunity for that. It will not be sustainable for me in terms of health. Please help me not have to make such a sacrifice.

Thank you all so much.