Support My Top Surgery Procedure

Hi friends and family

I wanted to start off by expressing my gratitude for anybody who decides to donate to this GoFundMe. I especially wanted to thank everyone who knows me and accepts me for the person I feel proud to be. I will forever be grateful for the support I’ve been shown along the way.

To start, my pronouns are they/them, and I identify as a non-binary person. If you don't know what that means, I highly encourage you to look further into it, for there are millions of other people like me walking alongside you. For now, I’ll share a little bit about my experience within my identity. Although this identity is newer to me in the last 5 years, I have felt different for my entire life. My earliest memories of feeling different than my peers are of my elementary school days. I was that tomboy who would play football with all of the boys at recess but still wanted to fit in with the girls. It was so confusing to consider myself a tomboy but be offended when a person would mistake me for being a boy. And yet, I did not want to be perceived as a girly girl either. This feeling carried with me until I was in my early 20s, where I eventually learned about what it means to be a non-binary person and decided that this is who I am. Since coming out as queer, I have never in my life felt more like myself. For 20 years of my life, I had to shove down these confusing feelings I had about my sexuality and my gender because of the fear of being rejected by family, friends, and society at such a young age. To be able to express myself freely and still feel the love and acceptance from my community and family is something that will never be taken from me. Although I have come such a long way in my self-discovery, there are still areas I struggle with. I’ve always felt this way towards my chest, the reason for this GoFundMe. I’ve decided that I will be getting gender-affirming top surgery this February. This is no light surgery and took a lot of thoughtful conversations and reflection but ultimately will make me feel more confident in my body than ever before. Because it’s such an invasive surgery, I am planning on being out of work for at least 6 weeks. I’m extremely lucky to have amazing insurance through my employer, but I fear the cost of living without paychecks is what will ultimately be the most expensive part of my procedure. I am so thankful for any amount and can’t wait for this next chapter of my life in a body that feels a bit more like me!