Supporting Our Friend Maddie
This past year has been a difficult one for my friend Maddie. Just four months after undergoing gender reassignment surgery, she was fired from her job of seven years. She was grateful to find a contract position shortly after, but eventually, that position was no longer needed. Since then, Maddie has been applying to jobs left and right but has unfortunately had no luck. While a job search is stressful on its own, the truth of the matter is that the workplace is far from safe for our transgender friends—a fact that Maddie has experienced through previous non-affirming bosses and now again throughout her many months of relentless applications and interviews.
Since coming out and living her truth, Maddie lost access to her family-of-origin as a support system, but has developed a beautiful chosen family—one that I’m lucky to be a part of. She’s easy to spot at our local pride parade donned in her amazing, handcrafted wings complete with twinkling lights! She shows up for her community both in person and online. She has been a faithful moderator for an online chat room for transgender folks for years, sometimes counseling a person in crisis into the wee hours of the night. In The Bevy—a community for queer women and trans & non-binary folks—Maddie has always shown up as a welcoming and supportive voice. Once, she came to my house and tinkered on my broken lawnmower for hours after overhearing that I needed some help. She has often and eagerly been the person that people lean on in extremely difficult times. But this time around, it’s our chance to let her lean on us.
As the new year approaches, Maddie becomes more and more in danger of losing her home, a gorgeous space that she lovingly refers to as “Château du Singe” (castle of the monkey). She has done a lot of custom work on it, and when you walk in, it feels like an extension of her creativity and kind heart. Over the last several months, Maddie has eaten through her savings and retirement, and she has fallen behind on her mortgage and her utilities. But this is where we come in. No one should have to carry a worry this heavy during the holiday season, and I hope you’ll consider giving as you are able.
The world has not always been kind to Maddie, but she has shown nothing but kindness in return. I want Maddie to know that she is loved and appreciated beyond measure. Thank you for helping me do that. Happy holidays to all of you!
-Brit
P.S. Maddie has worked for many years in computer software and has experience in the areas below. If you know of any open positions, click "Contact" below, and I'll send them along!
ASP.Net , C#, Visual Studio 2017, TFS, SQL Server, SSMS, SSRS, IIS, ASP, JSP, XML, Oracle, ODBC, HTML, CSS, Java, Crystal Reports, Jasper Reports, Excel, Word, FISERV, MERS