Help October Finish Her Transition

Hi, I'm October, and I'm a genderqueer/non-binary trans woman living in Vermont. Whilst I'm a multi-industry entrepreneur struggling to make ends meet in a variety of artistic/creative projects, ventures and small businesses, I barely make enough to break even half the time and I'm still on disability benefits because my doctors won't let me work a regular 9-to-5 type of job due to my TBI, seizures and other health issues I've struggled with for the last 10 years or so.

That said, I am starting this fundraiser for several reasons:

As of Friday, January 25th, 2019 in the afternoon, I received a letter from Medicaid saying that they were originally refusing to cover the final remaining surgeries that I had planned for last year and this year, but was cancelled on several occasions because I had thyroid cancer (which was removed on September 2018 via a thyroidectomy) and mostly because Medicaid was taking too long to respond back to my previous doctors at either clinic that I've been to for trans healthcare services in the last 20 years (both in California and Vermont, and most recently, Colorado) to approve my pending surgeries. However, since having attempted to resolve issues with my Medicaid, it appears that even with long waitlists in USA, and the fact that they've been rather ableist towards my being Deaf, I have decided to raise funds to contract a private surgeon, most likely through the Transgender Surgery Center in Philadelphia  or the Trans Top Surgery Center in Georgia .

I've been transitioning since I was 14 and had faced a tremendous amount of trauma, gatekeeping, transphobia, ignorance, some ableism towards my being Deaf (and refusing to provide sign language interpreter services at some appointments) and uneducated bigots along the way, and have been a survivor of conversion therapy torture in the past when I was younger. I'm 31 years old now, and I want my Gender Dysphoria to finally be over with so that I can start anew. Otherwise, I'm afraid that I'll die young and not realize my dream to become reality to finally be this beautiful woman that I was born to be. I'm raising funds to get surgery either from a surgeon in Vermont, or the aforementioned surgery centers that I linked above. I want it done this summer/fall 2020 and not waste another year of my life fighting more gatekeeping.

I have 3 letters of SRS recommendation to clear me for the following surgeries from 2 psychiatrists and my former primary care physician: (Dr. Adam Greenlee and Dr. Harris S. - can't spell his last name correctly for some reason so I shortened it - were the two psychiatrists who cleared me for life-saving gender affirming surgeries) —
Breast augmentation surgery - my primary surgery I want/need to relieve a lot of my Dysphoric symptoms.
FFS (Facial Feminization Surgery) - slated for a later date in a decade for now.

I've already had one surgery back in May of 2017 at the University of Vermont with Dr. Gillian Sterns who did my orchiectomy, and I am also still struggling to raise funds to get electrolysis and laser hair removal done ASAP prior to surgery. Most doctors and healthcare providers refused to work with me in the past because of their ableism -  even now in 2019/2020, they still discriminate against trans people with all sorts of disabilities, which totally sucks!

I've already legally changed my name and my gender markers on ALL my IDs, including my recently issued passport and birth certificate (except when I did the birth certificate, which was issued in Texas where I was born, would only allow me to change my name, but not my gender), and changed all my documents, bank info, etc. to the name and informed them of my gender transition. So that part is over with - all that's left to do is to get surgeries that I desperately need to save my life from a tragic suicidal end and to finally put to rest my Gender Dysphoria that I've had since I was a little girl trapped in the wrong body my entire life.

I do not want to live in the year 2020 if I don't get these final surgeries and move forward with my life, because that's how bad my Gender Dysphoria is - it is killing me every day and I need peace, to smile again and to enjoy my life as a free woman, alive and well.

Please help me so that I can finally achieve my goals in a healthcare system that's failed me. Any amount you can afford to donate is greatly appreciated. Thank you all and I hope this can finally happen soon.

#TransCrowdFund
#DisabilityCrowdFund
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