A crowd funding campaign entitled “Natalie’s Lifeline: A Vagina”, is calling for donations to help a transgender woman, who was kicked out of home and forced to live on the streets in Hong Kong, get gender reassignment surgery.
Natalie Choi was rejected by her devout Christian family when she was a teenager after refusing to enter an arranged marriage following years of beatings at the hands of her father, banishment to a male-only boarding school and correctional therapy to “cure” her gender dysphoria.
Now rehoused and a university graduate with the help of a local pressure group, Natalie, who lives as a woman but was assigned the gender “male” at birth, is still unable to find a job because of discrimination and the fact that the Hong Kong government will not recognise her as female until she has undergone sex reassignment surgery.
“As long as I can remember, I believed that I should be a female,” Choi explains on her crowdfunding page. “My feminine behaviour has got me bullied, teased and isolated throughout childhood. I also hated the male gender role and expectations that were imposed on me due to my ‘assigned sex’. Furthermore, I hated my wrongly assigned penis to the point that I would avoid seeing and touching that filthy, disgusting object. In fact, since I was 5 years old I realised that I wanted to remove that penis and get my vagina back!”
But without support from her family or a job, getting that vagina is a pretty tall order. Choi claims the surgery will cost at least USD10,000 (HKD77,500), not including lodging costs and her flight to Thailand, where she plans to undergo the procedure. She is therefore trying desperately to raise USD15,000 via Indiegogo, and has 21 days left to reach her target.
Explaining how important this is to her, Choi says, “I have just finished my studies and I wish to contribute to society by working. I don’t want to become a burden for the rest of my life! This would be the only time of my life I would ask for help and I promise I would live a fruitful life after my transition. Your generosity and compassion would save my life, and my love and gratitude will be with you forever.”
She also promises to be completely transparent by posting all receipts to the crowdfunding page and donating any remaining funds to Gender Proud, an advocacy group combatting transphobia around the world.
Click here to help Natalie’s cause.
