I'm really happy to see personal crowd funding sites (ones that allow for things that are not product related) working for transfolk to get their surgeries. The "scholarship" programmes are very limited, with such small application windows, it often doesn't work out for a large portion of those who need the surgeries.
The downside to crowd funding is that there are a number of sites out there that are not legit. Indiegogo is really the only site I'd ever suggest to anyone doing a non-product based fund.
I'm also really happy that more insurances are starting to cover transition surgeries. Even some state insurance programmes are starting to cover the basic surgeries (top surgeries and bottom surgeries, but not anything more like facial reconstruction, hair removal, etc).
There are also several states who have made it much easier to get certain records (driver's license/state ID, birth certificate, etc) switched over to the proper gender even without surgeries - in these states, you just need to be on hormonal therapy or a certain number of years into the transition cycle to get them changed.
While a lot of places have CareCredit, that is still based on your personal credit, although their threshold seems to be way lower than traditional credit cards. Even with CareCredit, payments for a surgery that costs $15,000.00 end up being at minimum $400.00 per month; that payment plan tacks on a lot of interest as it is a 60 month plan, so the end result is paying almost $25,000.00 overall. For the majority of people, especially those with trouble finding a good job (or any job at all), $400.00 is just as out of reach.
I'm really glad to see a healthy LGBTQIA community here, and the level of acceptance from the community at large. I was really afraid to start playing Dwynd, who identifies as gender neutral, and people didn't bat an eyelash; even in the LGBTQIA community at large, gender neutral and most androgens get a lot of flack.
Lastly, Nik, our income should be stabilizing here in September. Once it does, my fiancé and I will donate. I actually first saw your fund on FB, shared it there already, and we were already planning to donate. =)
P.S. Nik, did you play Aion ever? >.>
The downside to crowd funding is that there are a number of sites out there that are not legit. Indiegogo is really the only site I'd ever suggest to anyone doing a non-product based fund.
I'm also really happy that more insurances are starting to cover transition surgeries. Even some state insurance programmes are starting to cover the basic surgeries (top surgeries and bottom surgeries, but not anything more like facial reconstruction, hair removal, etc).
There are also several states who have made it much easier to get certain records (driver's license/state ID, birth certificate, etc) switched over to the proper gender even without surgeries - in these states, you just need to be on hormonal therapy or a certain number of years into the transition cycle to get them changed.
While a lot of places have CareCredit, that is still based on your personal credit, although their threshold seems to be way lower than traditional credit cards. Even with CareCredit, payments for a surgery that costs $15,000.00 end up being at minimum $400.00 per month; that payment plan tacks on a lot of interest as it is a 60 month plan, so the end result is paying almost $25,000.00 overall. For the majority of people, especially those with trouble finding a good job (or any job at all), $400.00 is just as out of reach.
I'm really glad to see a healthy LGBTQIA community here, and the level of acceptance from the community at large. I was really afraid to start playing Dwynd, who identifies as gender neutral, and people didn't bat an eyelash; even in the LGBTQIA community at large, gender neutral and most androgens get a lot of flack.
Lastly, Nik, our income should be stabilizing here in September. Once it does, my fiancé and I will donate. I actually first saw your fund on FB, shared it there already, and we were already planning to donate. =)
P.S. Nik, did you play Aion ever? >.>
![[Image: rm_rotate.png]](https://www.raven-mythic.com/images/gallery/20/FFXIVSigs/rm_rotate.png)
