Hi everyone!
My name is Elliott, and I’m ready to get something off my chest. I’m a nonbinary transmasculine individual seeking help paying for my gender-affirming top surgery! I’ve had this chest for 27 years, and I think the discomfort and gender dysphoria have been around for long enough. I’m so thrilled to move forward with inhabiting the body I’ve always wanted!
I moved to Los Angeles from Arkansas in 2019 for law school at UCLA, right before the pandemic hit. As many of my trans siblings know, when the world suddenly stopped, we all had time beyond the usual stresses of our lives to consider who and what we wanted to be. In that time, I realized that my persistent discomfort living as a woman was because I simply wasn’t one. I’d struggled with dysphoria since puberty, and I didn’t realize there was a way out until I found a beautiful community of queer and trans people who helped me find myself.
I graduated from law school in 2022 and began working as an assistant at Amazon MGM Studios, where I have been for the past three years, helping to negotiate deals for writers, producers, actors, and more. I’ve also been performing in drag since 2022 in the beautiful Haus of Yuq and have had a blast hosting and performing in shows as Elle Goods! Despite the hard work at a full-time job, the cost of living has skyrocketed in the past decade, and I’m still living paycheck-to-paycheck and struggling to make ends meet. To put it plainly, the cost of surgery is going to be impossible for me to cover without some help from my beloved community.
I have health insurance, but unfortunately, when I reached out to the in-network providers available to me, I found that the wait for a consultation would be over a year’s time. Luckily, I found a provider who can do the surgery in the fall of 2025, but it will cost $5,000 total, which is my out-of-pocket maximum for out-of-network care. Between that daunting number and lost wages for recovery time, I am seeking $8,000 to ensure that I can comfortably get the care I need and have time for healing before having to rush back into the office.
Thank you in advance for anything you may be able to give; every single dollar will help tremendously.
All my love,
Elliott
