Fundraising for Housing, Gender-Affirming Surgery & Medical Needs
As noted by Aryah Lester, Deputy Director of the Transgender Strategy Center, the transgender community was already subsisting on limited resources. So, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the community stepped up and created resources. Crowdfunding for basics, such as food and housing, became the norm.
For the Gworls is a Black, trans-led collective that curates parties to fundraise money to help Black transgender people pay for their rent, gender-affirming surgeries, smaller co-pays for medicines/ doctors’ visits, and travel assistance.1 Asanni Armon founded For the Gworls in 2019 in response to two friends facing eviction. They threw their first party on the Fourth of July on a rooftop in Brooklyn. Asanni, a genderqueer rapper, called on the talents of Maahd, a gender-fluid, transfemme DJ, to host what they initially believed would be a one-off party. After the first fundraiser’s success, friends and colleagues convinced Asanni to continue these efforts to help the transgender community. What followed were monthly parties to assist Black transgender people to sustain their livelihoods.
At its inception, For the Gworls did not know that the following year would bring a global pandemic, historic levels of unemployment, and the deadliest year on record for transgender people of color.2 With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, For the Gworls, like many other community entities, stopped its in-person parties and moved its fundraising to social media and its website. As noted by Aryah Lester, Deputy Director of the Transgender Strategy Center, the transgender community was already subsisting on limited resources. So, when the COVID pandemic hit, the community stepped up and created resources. Crowdfunding for basics, such as food and housing, became the norm. Armon notes that grassroots initiatives are often scrambling for funding, because larger nonprofit organizations siphon resources that rarely reach Black and brown people in the LGBTQ community.3
As of February 2021, For the Gworls has raised $1,000,000. Of that sum, $595,377 has gone to rent assistance, $460,866 has gone to gender-affirming surgery, and $53,058 has gone to the For the Gworls’ Medical Fund. While For the Gworls sees its work as necessary, it also advocates for universal access to housing support, so it no longer has to give money for basic needs. Its work highlights the need for holistic, universal healthcare, where gender-affirming services are seen as essential rather than cosmetic.4
1 https://www.forthegworls.party/home
2 National Center for Transgender Equality. Blog: Murders of Transgender People in 2020 Surpasses Total for the Last Year in First Seven Months. https://transequality.org/blog/murders-of-transgender-people-in-2020-surpasses-total-for-last-year-in-just-seven-months
3 Zora. Trans Communities Are Demonstrating Incredible Resilience. 29 April 2020. https://zora.medium.com/trans-communities-are-demonstrating-incredible-
resilience-643f92c4221
4 Paper. For the Gworls Party’s Asanni Armon Talks With Joshua Allen. 7 October 2020. https://www.papermag.com/joshua-allen-asanni-armon-for-the-gworls-party-2648128984.html?rebelltitem=12#rebelltitem12