Karlie's tracheal shave fund

Dear friends, queer family and cool strangers!...

I’ve been wanting to get this done for years but was too scared.

One of the most important things in my life is singing in my band GABA Oolong. I read some bad things on reddit a few years ago and tried to let go of this idea forever because I thought it was too risky for my voice. I only started looking into this again because things got too bad to ignore.

There is basically no research on how tracheal shave effects trans vocalists (yet!) because it's too niche. Thanks to some kind friends who have been through this I’ve gotten a more realistic expectation of the risks than the scare stories I saw somewhere in the past. It seems that with an experienced surgeon and proper aftercare most people are able to build their voice back up, even if it takes a while.

The surgery will actually be around £8k/£9k at the LTC (once it’s back up and running), and I also want to fundraise for some training with a vocal coach to help me recover. But this £4k gofundme, along with a fundraising event, should get me to a point where I can manage the rest with my own funds + some family support.

I am in limbo a little until the LTC is fully operational, but luckily this surgery has a fairly short wait time, so I was hoping to go ahead in late March / early April.

The bad stuff (TW: transphobia / dysphoria):

As many of you probably know, I had some real shockers with harrasment in 2022/23. I had rocks thrown at me, I was shouted off several trains, someone attempted to sexually assault me at a bus stop... etc.

Around the middle of 2023 I gave up going out presenting femme in the daytime. No matter how much work I put into my makeup / clothes, people would see my neck and clock the tea and it made me feel worthless. Every time someone made the choice to attack me because of their hate, in my head made it about my neck!

I can’t lie and say that ‘passing’ and safety isn’t a large part of why I’m doing this, but it’s important to me that it’s not the only reason. I’m still gonna get harassed after this, but I don’t want to be saying to myself every time I get harassed ‘it’s because of that thing you know you hate’. I want to get harassed on my own terms haha.

The good stuff:

I like looking trans, I don’t like my adams apple.

My main childhood puberty bad memories are about my facial hair and my adams apple, two things people always told me I had a lot of… and I started sorting out my facial hair before I even got on hormones.

I want to be able to take a photo without holding down my chin! I want to go out in public and literally hold my head up high.

It feels on some level absolutely insane to spend so much money and go through so much effort to shave off like 3mm from my neck. I am afraid the results won't be what I want them to be, but...

I think I’m gonna be happier once I’ve done this! And able to move on.

And I want to say in advance that I hugely appreciate the support and love from anyone who donates or shares.

Even after looking into this again I abandoned this because of the cost, until I told two of my sisters and they both said, ‘Karlie, if you want this, we will help you get there’.

Having a support network of queer / trans siblings gave me the confidence I needed to decide what I actually wanted to do.

I love you lot ️‍⚧️️‍

Thanks for reading,

Karlie (Zachary-Rose) x