Dozens of transgender people who live in Florida have turned to crowdfunding appeals in an effort to move out of the state, ABC News reported Friday.
Reportedly, the transgender people who are trying to leave the state of Florida are doing so because of a slew of “anti-LGBTQ+” laws that have been passed in recent years.
Sage Chelf, a 30-year-old “trans woman,” told the outlet that the clinic that prescribed “her” hormone therapy was ending all treatments for patients who identify as transgender.
“I don’t want to go back to the person that I was forced to be at the time,” Chelf told the outlet. Chelf reportedly began to transition in 2021. “It was a very dark time in my life. I would rather just not be alive, I guess, then have to go back to living not trans.”
Sage Chelf, a trans woman, is moving out of Florida to Illinois soon because of a recent law in Florida that has restricted her access to gender affirming care. https://t.co/ssye0NDmmE
— WEAR ABC 3 (@weartv) June 2, 2023
The outlet noted that it took Chelf less than two weeks to garner up the funds to move away (via ABC News):
Chelf, who works as a leasing agent in Orlando, figured she would need $2,500 to cover the cost of moving and finding a new job. She was stunned to raise more than $3,000 online in less than two weeks.
“I was under the impression that no one’s going to actually donate, people are going to think I’m just trying to like, get free money,” she said.
People have given $200,000 since January to fundraisers on GoFundMe started by trans people seeking to leave Florida, according to data from the platform. Jalen Drummond, GoFundMe's director of public affairs, said the online fundraising platform saw a 39% increase from April to May in the number of fundraisers created to help trans people leave the state because of the changing laws.
And, The Campaign for Southern Equality is reportedly providing direct grants of $500 to families of transgender children in southern states and to transgender adults in Florida. It is close to reaching its fundraising goal of $250,000 to distribute this year.
“We are having folks reach out out-of-the-blue, multiple times a week saying, ‘Hey, never connected with your organization before. I’m hosting a fundraiser for you tomorrow night thousands of miles from here. I’ll send you the money.’” the organization’s executive director, Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, said.