Pay It Forward #4: Protect trans families

We've raised $5,070 so far!

Hello to the 3,698 hotties who subscribe to this newsletter! Thank you for being here.

For those who are new here, I wanna tell you about Queer & Trans Wealth’s most important project: The Pay It Forward Fund. This fund allows me to provide free financial coaching to queer & trans people living in states that have passed or introduced anti-trans legislation.

You can donate to the fund here. On the other hand, if you live in a state like Florida or Texas and can’t afford financial coaching right now, please apply to receive a scholarship using this form.

Every two weeks, I write a newsletter to share what our community needs throughout the process. Since the project started in November 2022, we’ve raised a total of $5,070. From the money raised in the last two weeks, we can serve an additional 6 people from the waiting list!

Special shout out to Maggie Stang, who raised $775 for us! <3

Quick shout out to one of our donors, Maggie Stang! Maggie and I met last year when they graciously hired me as their financial coach. They were so kind, and I was so happy I got to work with them. For their 30th birthday, Maggie sold linocut prints (pictured below) and decided to donate half of the sales to Queer & Trans Wealth. So generous!

This is the first time Maggie has sold their prints. Their original goal was to sell 30, but, when I did the math, I realized Maggie sold at least 60 prints! The other half of the sales went to the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project so please check them out as well.

Thanks to Maggie’s fundraiser, we’ve been able to fund at least 5 more free financial coaching sessions! Thank you so much!

Now, onto this week’s updates & insights…

Couples are rushed into financial conversations they weren’t ready to have

I’ve met with a few clients who have rushed to get married between November and January in case Trump revokes our right to get married in the United States. While I absolutely hate these circumstances, I’m truly a sucker for romance. It’s heartwarming to see how folx love and support each other through scary times.

There’s a common stereotype that queer & trans people move quicker than people in heteronormative relationships. We all know the jokes about lesbians bringing a U-Haul to their second date and moving in with their partners quickly. I figured that the reason we move quickly in romantic relationships is because being queer and trans requires us to get to know ourselves deeply in a short timeline. Now, I recognize that part of the reason we move fast in relationships is the sense of urgency, fear, and scarcity manufactured by systems that oppress us.

From a financial standpoint, I’m seeing one unexpected side effect: Couples don’t have the chance to have serious financial conversations before quickly tying the knot. I’m coaching people on how to have conversations about equity within their new marriages so that they can enjoy their honeymoon phase instead of skipping past it.

Parents of trans youth are struggling to raise money to move to a safer state

Lately, I’ve been prioritizing meeting with parents of trans youth. Being a parent in this economy is stressful enough between the cost of food, childcare, and housing. Figuring out how to find a job, housing, and childcare in a different state — it’s even more stressful.

Some parents who applied for the scholarship are single parents trying to make ends meet, avoiding debt even if they only make $3,000 or less per month for a family of 3 or 4. Some parents are now the sole income earners in their families because their spouse was laid off from a job or lost disability income.

In 2023, I interviewed a family of 5 in Florida who had plans to move to Minneapolis to protect their 6-year-old trans daughter. The Denis family told me they make less than $50,000 per year. They had no emergency savings and relied on a GoFundMe campaign to raise the funds they needed to move.

Fast forward to 2025, and the same problems persist for low-income families who only want to protect and support their trans children. I’ve been coaching parents on starting a crowdfunding campaign, ensuring that they only share what they need to share online to keep their trans kids safe. Some kids may not be old enough to consent to their transition story being shared so early. Other kids might be scared that sharing their stories online will attract bullies at school. But without those stories, donors might not understand the urgency of their crowdfunding campaigns. It’s a tricky balance, and I’m glad parents don’t need to navigate this alone.

Including trans crowdfunding campaigns in our reports

Moving forward, I want to include links to crowdfunding campaigns in our bimonthly reports. If you or any trans person you know are trying to raise money to move to a different state or to save for gender-affirming surgery, please send the link to your campaign via email at hello@queerandtranswealth.org.