Hello! We are a married lesbian couple (a trans woman and a nonbinary woman) forced to flee the United States due to the rise in genocidally transphobic legislation early this year and as the year has continued. We successfully crowdfunded that escape, but at the time, we undercut our actual expenses by about $10,000.

While we initially thought we were going to, in fact, need that extra $10k, we decided that with my wife's retirement funds and the timing of our initial escape plans, that we could lower the amount we requested and ensure that was money going to other trans women in need in situations similar to our own -- despite how thin we knew our margin for error was going to be.

However, due to a confluence of events (particularly related to the bureaucratic requirements for getting our cats from the US to another continent halfway across the world), Nic was forced to be in the US for about two and a half months longer than they anticipated which meant we were paying bills for both the US and our new country of origin including being responsible for the lease for our old house for two months after we'd moved out.

Nic had to leave their job so that they could cash out their retirement benefits which were the main reason the move would have been affordable for both of us in the first place. And in the last six months of not working and moving across the world, those retirement benefits burnt up very quickly.

We both intended to apply for work, intentions which were complicated by the fact that my laptop and a desktop were both damaged during the international transit, and so substantial additional costs and delays to find remote employment (or continue pursuing my craft as a writer) were made until both my wife and I had the tools we needed to work.

We're asking for these additional funds to help cover two main costs of our move that we thought we had covered but have turned out not to be and some of the costs related to to our legal, on paper reason for the visa we have in our host country until we're actually able to get back on our feet.

First, we are still waiting to ship the majority of our belongings from the US to our new home. At this point, that will cost us $5k and that's an amount we can no longer spend comfortably until we know we have employment lined up (an area in which we've finally been able to make movement as we have the tools we need). This has become increasingly urgent as Trump's economic warmongering has caused most inbound shipping to the US to stop from many countries of the world, and we fear it won't be long before any outbound shipping from the US stops as well.

The issue of getting the rest of our belongings shipped here is most urgent for Nic who had to leave behind a suitcase with most of their clothes due to a misunderstanding when she was first leaving the States.

Nic has mostly had sleep and around the house leisure clothes and not professional or business appropriate clothing since the move, and because she is a plus-size woman in a region of the world where plus-size clothes are much more difficult to find, Nic needs their wardrobe so they can stop recycling the same outfits every couple of days.

Dawn (her wife) would also like her books, films, and records, but at this point, they are less of a priority to me than getting Nic their clothes back.

We also need help covering the $5k that it cost us to have our cats shipped to us. The cat relocation service gracefully allowed us to play in installments but if we don't want to pay the amount of a student loan each month (which we can't afford while we're not working), then we need to get that paid off as well.

The final, additional $5k that we're asking for will be going to help with some of the bureaucratic requirements of our visa program which includes biannual runs to other countries to remain within the terms of our visa, the costs of attending the language program that will help us achieve enough competency with the local language to attempt to earn long-term residency in the future, and the costs of the official course of study that Nic and I have pursued as part of the cultural education requirements of our visa.

Getting these necessities covered and paid for would allow Nic and I to focus on our main goals since our move which is to be advocates for other trans people who are having to flee the anti-trans genocide in the US. But until we have reached a baseline of stability ourselves, there is only so much we can do.

Thank you for your consideration and thank you for understanding why we need more help despite having already asked for it before. Your generosity saved our lives before, and we appreciate anyone willing to lend us a helping hand again. Thank you so much for your help!