Support Ruthie's Life-Changing Surgery!

The political climate is getting worse, my dysphoria isn’t going anywhere, and I can't keep waiting!

Since puberty, I’ve been in an unrelenting fistfight with body dysphoria — making myself small by slouching to hide my chest, trying on clothes only to feel disconnected from the reflection, even binding during sleep in an attempt to feel a little less fragmented inside the body I was born with.

Top surgery is something I’ve desperately wanted for years, but for one reason or another, it’s always been out of reach. Now, with anti-trans legislation rising and gender-affirming care increasingly under attack, I no longer feel like I have the luxury of waiting for “the right time.” Unfortunately, access isn’t guaranteed — and delaying could mean losing this opportunity altogether.

I finally have a surgeon and a tentative date for late summer to receive this mega affirming, life-changing surgery.

I know times are hard, and the world feels especially heavy right now. Any financial help — and always emotional support! — means more than I can put into words. As I am lucky enough to have PTO, (at my job as an educator, working with kids who need to know that queer people grow up, keep going, and get to take up space) funds will go directly toward surgical costs and post-op care. Here’s to showing up for ourselves and to living unapologetically, no matter who tries to stop us.

XOXO,

R. Barakat