Happy Eleventh Day of Christmas. Today’s I’m supporting the Fund for Legal Name/Gender Changes.

A lot of folks are understandably concerned about what sort of changes the incoming administration is likely to bring. Really, anyone remotely paying attention ought to be, but for some people the impact is much more immediate and personal than others. The proposed cabinet and executive staff are packed full of some remarkably regressive people on all manner of social issues, and the government’s opinions on these topics have much greater impact for some people more than others. Our institutional history of dealing with our trans neighbors is particularly bad… and many of them are particularly worried.

A friend of mine put it like this:

How many times a month do you have to show your driver’s license? Imagine if it had someone else’s photo and name, and you had to explain why each time to a total stranger. It’s awkward, unnecessary and potentially dangerous given the abundance of violence towards trans people.

And that’s just the trivial daily example. The mismatch can result in travel restrictions, lack of access to medical services, difficulty finding employment or housing, or a whole range of civil rights violations. And yes, a greatly increased risk of physical violence.

So until inauguration day, our friend is raising and distributing money to fund trans folks getting the name and gender designation on their legal documents to match reality. The costs vary by state and situation, but can easily run north of $500. To date, the project has raised right around $30,000 and funded about 84 people as of the last update. They’re likely to end up with more requests than they’re able to fund, but I’d really like to see them cover as many as they can before inauguration day.

If you’d like to help, you can contribute at the project’s GoFundMe page. It also has a number of resources on related issues, useful both for trans folks in need of help or anyone else looking to educate themselves on the topic, including a pointer to a decent writeup on why trans folks are particularly concerned about this administration.