HELP RAY & GOLDEN STAY ALIVE
Donation protected
we (golden and ray) are a transnonbinaryqueercripneurodiverse femme family, along with our beloved familiars, esme the zephyr, and azula yue, kittens of high esteem.
we are in crisis - financial, physically, re: housing safety/security, emotionally. this has been an ongoing life-long experience for us both and we are now at a precipice.
THIS WILL HELP US PAY FOR:
RENT (until our lease is up in July)
FOOD (to supplement SNAP, we have MANY dietary restrictions and cook everything)
LIFE-SUSTAINING MEDS/SUPPLEMENTS
MANY MAXED CCs
MEDICAL BILLS IN COLLECTIONS
OUR SHARED VEHICLE
AIR FILTERS
MOLD ERADICATING/MINIMIZING TOOLS
SUPPLIES WE NEED FOR OUR PRACTICE
BASIC HOUSEHOLD NEEDS
SUPPORT W/ REGULAR HOUSE CLEANING (COVID SAFE AS POSSIBLE)
REPLACING ITEMS WE LOST TO MOLD LAST YEAR
REPLACING RAYS PHONE
NEEDED ASSISTIVE DEVICES
the amount we set as our goal, is VERY conservative - if we made our goal, we could get thru the coming months and build our lives in a new direction.
our ongoing hope and aim is to be able to live sustainably and holistically via support from our practice, lunation somatics, across all mediums. this is not just a goal, but an imperative, an immediate critical need. we are no longer in a place to endeavor anything else - we are too disabled, too sick, frankly.
ray will be taking a step back from counseling in less than two months, as they are physically unable to interact with screens as much as they are - this is the bulk of our income. the rest comes from golden's UI and some work with clients/sales from our webshop/patreon.
for all the ways to access/support us and our work please visit our linktree
please share this as widely as you can, with as many different networks as you can. share with folks who may have wealth privilege, financial access. share with people who can connect us and support us applying for grants and scholarships. share with people who have large followings. as it should be, the most marginalized amongst us are caring for our own communities but we ALSO need help from people who have the privilege to do it without putting themselves out.
for more information and more about our story, please continue below.
thank you for taking the time to read our story.
we love and appreciate you.
we believe we can get thru this.
love,
ray + golden + esme + azula
-------
we moved for the fifth time in two years, at the end of july to south city stl; accessing what we thought was safe/accessible housing. the air quality in and around our apartment is poor because of environmental pollution and dirty/moldy forced air heat.
there was an incident with HEAVY water damage that occurred last night. we are both immunocompromised, disabled in many ways and highly allergic to mold. it may be that it will be resolved enough by our landlord that we won't completely lose our home to mold again, as we did last year.
the impact of chronic illness, mold/lyme/CFS/EDS, neurodiversity, disability, the pandemic, life-long poverty, marginalization and discrimination has left us without the resources we need to meet our most basic needs.
we cannot afford our rent, food, our healthcare or any of our bills.
we cannot afford to move, so we have to make the best of this apartment until the lease is up at the end of july. if we can't get what we need to live in it safely, we woke make it as housed folks either.
we have already lost our housing and a lot of our ability to mold, illness, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and poverty.
we need to be able to have enough to get the supplies we need to care for our home and our bodies until our shared work can support us completely.
we need support as we are barely able to physically keep up with basics like dishes, any cleaning, laundry... we are often making ourselves sicker to get these things done. we had hoped to hire a COVID safe person to help us but, we can't afford our rent or meds or food.
COVID has created a deeper impact of these oppressions for many of us; created less safe community (as so many are taking huge chances with their own health and others), created less resources that we could normally rely upon and there is no end in sight, no systemic support that sustains.
-------
SHORT BACKGROUND:
in the spring/summer of 2019, after many months of genuinely thinking we would die, we both received lyme diagnoses (including for many co-infections, including MARCONS, EBV and mycoplasma pneumoniae; heavy metal toxicity and severe mold allergies) and the possibility of ME/CFS, for ray progressive auditory and visual disability and for golden EDS.
golden had just recovered from a hysterectomy the winter before, the fourth surgery to treat their endometriosis (and this to also affirm their gender) - their fundraiser for that surgery made about 1/2 its goal.
the mold allergy diagnosis led to us losing our home and 98% of our belongings, to toxic mold, just months after we moved out of the city to improve our environmental conditions (we thought).
we set up a gofundme then that made less than 1/2 it's goal, it was just enough to get us there but not to start to rebuild our home. most of the items we put on our amazon wishlist to rebuild our home, now almost a year and a half ago, have not been things we have had the funds to repurchase.
we left for montana in july of 2019, so golden could continue working while ray took a long medical leave from counseling. while at work golden was continually exposed to mold and severe emotional abuse and discrimination.
during this time we started our practice, lunation somatics, an investment in our community and ourselves.
golden was fired in dec of 2019 while recovering from top surgery because they asked for reasonable accommodation to be made for their health. the nonprofit they worked for was owned by their mom and they are now completely estranged from their family of origin (except for two cousins).
their top surgery fundraiser, met less than 1/4 of it goal, which was also to help us get to safety - what we raised barely covered our moving costs.
we moved to st. louis, mo in dec of 2019 because we had a free place to stay, the hopes of community support and a chance to get on our feet. then the pandemic happened.
golden's abusive family blocked them from gaining access to UI and workers comp. ray was able to start practicing as a counselor again by late spring 2020 but only very part time, due to the impacts of screens.
while they were still working for them, golden's mom discontinued health insurance premium payments for every employee, including the whole family (and ray) without telling anyone. their coverage was threatened to end the night before golden's top surgery... but ultimately ended Dec 1st. we had no idea. we both kept seeing health care providers and getting care as if we had it - that is now about $12k in back owed medical debt between us.
golden got access to PUA, eventually, so we started looking for safe accessible housing. as we packed, the PUA was paused. two months later MT was asking for it all back due to their own errors ($14k). two and a half months later, MO approved their UI (at 1/7 of the original amount).
we are slowly building our practice since last year and we have created a solid foundation. while we are DEEPLY grateful for our community and clients, it is no where enough to sustain us as it is right now.
without help, we will be houseless in weeks or too sick to survive in the home we're in and will absolutely not survive those eventualities.
we are in crisis - financial, physically, re: housing safety/security, emotionally. this has been an ongoing life-long experience for us both and we are now at a precipice.
THIS WILL HELP US PAY FOR:
RENT (until our lease is up in July)
FOOD (to supplement SNAP, we have MANY dietary restrictions and cook everything)
LIFE-SUSTAINING MEDS/SUPPLEMENTS
MANY MAXED CCs
MEDICAL BILLS IN COLLECTIONS
OUR SHARED VEHICLE
AIR FILTERS
MOLD ERADICATING/MINIMIZING TOOLS
SUPPLIES WE NEED FOR OUR PRACTICE
BASIC HOUSEHOLD NEEDS
SUPPORT W/ REGULAR HOUSE CLEANING (COVID SAFE AS POSSIBLE)
REPLACING ITEMS WE LOST TO MOLD LAST YEAR
REPLACING RAYS PHONE
NEEDED ASSISTIVE DEVICES
the amount we set as our goal, is VERY conservative - if we made our goal, we could get thru the coming months and build our lives in a new direction.
our ongoing hope and aim is to be able to live sustainably and holistically via support from our practice, lunation somatics, across all mediums. this is not just a goal, but an imperative, an immediate critical need. we are no longer in a place to endeavor anything else - we are too disabled, too sick, frankly.
ray will be taking a step back from counseling in less than two months, as they are physically unable to interact with screens as much as they are - this is the bulk of our income. the rest comes from golden's UI and some work with clients/sales from our webshop/patreon.
for all the ways to access/support us and our work please visit our linktree
please share this as widely as you can, with as many different networks as you can. share with folks who may have wealth privilege, financial access. share with people who can connect us and support us applying for grants and scholarships. share with people who have large followings. as it should be, the most marginalized amongst us are caring for our own communities but we ALSO need help from people who have the privilege to do it without putting themselves out.
for more information and more about our story, please continue below.
thank you for taking the time to read our story.
we love and appreciate you.
we believe we can get thru this.
love,
ray + golden + esme + azula
-------
we moved for the fifth time in two years, at the end of july to south city stl; accessing what we thought was safe/accessible housing. the air quality in and around our apartment is poor because of environmental pollution and dirty/moldy forced air heat.
there was an incident with HEAVY water damage that occurred last night. we are both immunocompromised, disabled in many ways and highly allergic to mold. it may be that it will be resolved enough by our landlord that we won't completely lose our home to mold again, as we did last year.
the impact of chronic illness, mold/lyme/CFS/EDS, neurodiversity, disability, the pandemic, life-long poverty, marginalization and discrimination has left us without the resources we need to meet our most basic needs.
we cannot afford our rent, food, our healthcare or any of our bills.
we cannot afford to move, so we have to make the best of this apartment until the lease is up at the end of july. if we can't get what we need to live in it safely, we woke make it as housed folks either.
we have already lost our housing and a lot of our ability to mold, illness, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and poverty.
we need to be able to have enough to get the supplies we need to care for our home and our bodies until our shared work can support us completely.
we need support as we are barely able to physically keep up with basics like dishes, any cleaning, laundry... we are often making ourselves sicker to get these things done. we had hoped to hire a COVID safe person to help us but, we can't afford our rent or meds or food.
COVID has created a deeper impact of these oppressions for many of us; created less safe community (as so many are taking huge chances with their own health and others), created less resources that we could normally rely upon and there is no end in sight, no systemic support that sustains.
-------
SHORT BACKGROUND:
in the spring/summer of 2019, after many months of genuinely thinking we would die, we both received lyme diagnoses (including for many co-infections, including MARCONS, EBV and mycoplasma pneumoniae; heavy metal toxicity and severe mold allergies) and the possibility of ME/CFS, for ray progressive auditory and visual disability and for golden EDS.
golden had just recovered from a hysterectomy the winter before, the fourth surgery to treat their endometriosis (and this to also affirm their gender) - their fundraiser for that surgery made about 1/2 its goal.
the mold allergy diagnosis led to us losing our home and 98% of our belongings, to toxic mold, just months after we moved out of the city to improve our environmental conditions (we thought).
we set up a gofundme then that made less than 1/2 it's goal, it was just enough to get us there but not to start to rebuild our home. most of the items we put on our amazon wishlist to rebuild our home, now almost a year and a half ago, have not been things we have had the funds to repurchase.
we left for montana in july of 2019, so golden could continue working while ray took a long medical leave from counseling. while at work golden was continually exposed to mold and severe emotional abuse and discrimination.
during this time we started our practice, lunation somatics, an investment in our community and ourselves.
golden was fired in dec of 2019 while recovering from top surgery because they asked for reasonable accommodation to be made for their health. the nonprofit they worked for was owned by their mom and they are now completely estranged from their family of origin (except for two cousins).
their top surgery fundraiser, met less than 1/4 of it goal, which was also to help us get to safety - what we raised barely covered our moving costs.
we moved to st. louis, mo in dec of 2019 because we had a free place to stay, the hopes of community support and a chance to get on our feet. then the pandemic happened.
golden's abusive family blocked them from gaining access to UI and workers comp. ray was able to start practicing as a counselor again by late spring 2020 but only very part time, due to the impacts of screens.
while they were still working for them, golden's mom discontinued health insurance premium payments for every employee, including the whole family (and ray) without telling anyone. their coverage was threatened to end the night before golden's top surgery... but ultimately ended Dec 1st. we had no idea. we both kept seeing health care providers and getting care as if we had it - that is now about $12k in back owed medical debt between us.
golden got access to PUA, eventually, so we started looking for safe accessible housing. as we packed, the PUA was paused. two months later MT was asking for it all back due to their own errors ($14k). two and a half months later, MO approved their UI (at 1/7 of the original amount).
we are slowly building our practice since last year and we have created a solid foundation. while we are DEEPLY grateful for our community and clients, it is no where enough to sustain us as it is right now.
without help, we will be houseless in weeks or too sick to survive in the home we're in and will absolutely not survive those eventualities.
Organizer
G. Petoia
Organizer
St Louis, MO