Help Iris Recover and Flee America

Hey there! My name is Iris Jade Grimm and I am a 41 year old transfemme.

In 2021, my partner and I fled abusive families in my home state of Missouri and moved to Oregon so that I would have a better chance to transition. Recently, Missouri effectively banned gender affirming care, which means even if I wanted to...I can never go home. But the hormone therapy and other care I have already received here has been life-saving.

Otherwise, we have been struggling. To find work, to keep fed, to keep housed. I have very few gender-affirming clothes. We lost food stamps after the “Debt Ceiling Deal” and have been rationing ever since. My partner cannot afford medicine they need badly.

Recently, the date for my top surgery - getting boobs, a day I have been dreaming about since I was 10 - was moved WAY up to September 15th. I now have only a matter of days to get ready for this, and my disabled, immune-compromised partner and I will need a LOT of help. We have very few friends here, no car, and have faced both transphobia and ableism while seeking employment. The money you donate will help keep us alive, housed, fed, and pay bills while I recover from this life-giving surgery and am finally able to secure employment.

I am a talented artist, graphic designer. and writer. I am currently working on a "living graphic novel" (The Regulators ) that features an all-trans team of superheroes. I'd like to continue that work to help inspire other trans people and give them something to hope for.

I have lived most of my life as the barest shadow of my true self. I am watching with the rest of you as the rights of trans people across America are stripped away. I can see that even if humanity survives the impending climate disaster, the lives we lead from here on out will be dramatically different. I just want the opportunity to feel like myself. I want to look in the mirror just once and like what I see. Please help this Iris finally bloom!

UPDATE: My partner and I have already lived in fear and isolation for three years because of the pandemic. Now, as a rising tide of antisemitism sweeps America, we are desperate to escape before something horrific begins again.

Among my ancestors are people who founded Salem and were accusers in the Witch Trials. That’s my father’s side. A father who tormented me my entire life.

Also among my ancestors were Jewish farmers on my mom’s side. My mother is a kind, fiercely intelligent, practical woman who was ground down by her abusive husband. She deserves better. My partner deserves better. I deserve better.

I am still healing from my surgery, but now there is another wound: I no longer feel safe in my own country. I want to leave this stolen land and never return. Please help me right the wrongs of actual white colonizers and help send this one white bitch back to somewhere she belongs.

Please.