This Advent, Let's Give Money To Trans People

Transgender pride flag. Image source.

For Advent this year, I've decided to give money through #TransCrowdFund. This is a hashtag that trans people use on twitter when posting their fundraising needs. Go over there and pick one and donate~

J. Skylar, the creator of the hashtag, said this about the economic violence that trans people face:

Some trans people face economic violence in the form of employment discrimination. Others face housing discrimination. Numerous trans people suffer health care discrimination and many trans people face these injustices simultaneously. The “Fight For $15” doesn’t mean much to a trans person who can’t find employment or is terminated without legal recourse. Maintaining a full-time job isn’t exactly easy if you’re homeless due to housing discrimination. Many trans people have to rebuild their entire lives after coming out as trans, which can include losing financial assets after a divorce or leaving the family home. Trans people of color run a higher risk of facing these issues than our white counterparts. Many trans people, especially trans women of color, are dependent on sex work for survival, which inherently runs the risk of racial profiling, incarceration, and legal fees. Trans people who make sex work their career of choice face these hurdles as well.

Additionally, cis people tend to assume trans people have only themselves to care for, but many trans people are financially responsible for children and extended family. As you can see, there is a never-ending myriad of ways trans people face economic violence.

Every week during Advent, I'm going to look through the #TransCrowdFund hashtag and pick a few to donate to. If you have money to give, you can do it too~

If you don't like the idea of giving money directly to strangers on the internet, you can donate to Trans Lifeline. Or any of the other organizations mentioned in this article: How to Help Transgender People Fight the Trump Administration's New Policy Memo.

Personally, I have questions about the effectiveness of giving money to individual people rather than organizations- seems like just a temporary solution; it won't change the system that creates these problems in the first place. And I have thoughts about my own tendency, when looking through the various posts on this hashtag, to judge who is "really" in need. Related to that, it's quite messed-up that people are required to perform their neediness for strangers on the internet in order to get enough money to survive.

But for now I've decided to do this and think of it as a Christmas gift. We can help a few individual people with their immediate needs right now. Let's do it~

--------------------

Related:
Dear Christians: Here's how to ACTUALLY love transgender people (A post with lots of links to information about trans people and the discrimination they face)