Pay It Forward #6: Mutual aid requests

& holding myself accountable <3

Hello to the 5,191 hotties who subscribe to this newsletter! Thank you for being here <3

For those of you who are new here, The Pay It Forward project allows me to provide financial coaching for queer & trans people living in states where anti-trans legislation has been passed or introduced — free of charge.

🤝 If you live in a state that has passed or introduced anti-trans legislation, click here to apply for free financial coaching.

🤑 Redistribute your wealth: Donate a session by sending what you can on Venmo (@queerandtranswealth) or through this link.

📣 If you need help amplifying your crowdfunding campaign for living expenses or surgeries, please send us an email at hello@queerandtranswealth.org.

Mutual aid requests from community members

Please support our community members all over the US who are just trying to make ends meet. Some of these folx, I’ve worked with 1:1. Others have applied for free coaching scholarships. Either way, they need your support!

1. Arkansas: Reli’s partner will lose his income during the summer months, and their family of 3 could use a little extra support with living expenses. Their goal is $4,500. Let’s help them get there! Here’s the link to their crowdfunding campaign.

2. Texas: Javi is a museum worker in Texas who is passionate about visual arts, photography, and poetry. He’s been trying to get top surgery for several years, and it’s finally happening! Here are more details:

   

3. Alabama: 14-year-old Andy and their family have about $2,000 left to raise so that they can leave Alabama and move to a safer state! Here’s a link to their crowdfunding campaign.

4. Minnesota: Ash is trying to pay off debt related to getting their gender-affirming surgery back in November. They have about $3,100 left to raise! Here’s a link to their crowdfunding campaign.

Special thanks to the good folx at Brood!

Since launching this project in November 2024, we’ve raised $6,290 so far! Quick shout-out to our friends at Brood Care, a doula agency based in the west coast of Canada for raising $250 for The Pay It Forward Fund! They designed some very sweet hats and redirected some of the profits to us <3

Thank you so much to the folx at Brood, and to everyone who has ever donated to the Pay It Forward Fund <3 We appreciate y’all so much!

Holding myself accountable

June marks my second anniversary of being a full-time financial coach and educator. I’m so honored to do this work, and I have been gently and consistently investigating my own biases along the way.

The truth is I have a weak spot: I’m a bonafide city queer. I grew up in Manila, and my family moved to the suburbs of the US when I was 12. Then, when I was old enough to leave, I chose to live in big cities between the ages of 19 and 33. Those 7 years I spent in the suburbs were fucking awful for me, and, because of that, my programming is set to escape and assimilate to new cultures.

In the past few months, I had the opportunity to travel to Texas, Missouri, and Iowa —3 states that have passed anti-trans legislation in the last few years. We get dozens of applications for free or affordable financial coaching from these states, and I feel honored that I got to speak to locals directly about what they’re going through. I met people whose experience living in the suburbs or in smaller cities were completely different than my own.

I learned that people who are born and raised in smaller cities might have different values, namely: hometown pride, longevity, and shifting their local political climate by standing their ground. A lot of folx — especially Texans — love their city downnnn. They are willing to go to hell and back to protect each other. The scary policies in each of these states make good headlines, but they don’t always represent the attitudes of the people who live in those states.

I don’t really have much of a conclusion here. But if we’re in a coaching session together and you see some of these biases pop up in my suggestions, I encourage you to call me in. <3

And if you’re an organizer in a red state, and you’d like to have a short discussion about this via Zoom, please reach out to hello@queerandtranswealth.org to set up a time to chat with me.

‘Til next time,

Leo <3