News :: GLBT
In brief: Transgender Emergency Fund thrives, seeks more $$
Thursday Apr 16, 2009
Transgender Emergency Fund meets with success, seeks more $$
Lorin Gartenlaub, a transwoman living in Worcester, was in a bind last winter: she needed several hundred dollars for the co-pay for a medication her doctor prescribed to treat her multiple sclerosis, but she did not have the money.
When she mentioned her dilemma to Jesse Pack, who at the time was the facilitator for the New Horizons transgender support group, Pack suggested she apply for assistance from the Transgender Emergency Fund, which Pack and some friends had founded just a few months before to meet emergency expenses for low-income transgender people. The fund came forward with the money to make the co-pay, and it also put forward money to pay down some of her debt built up from past medical expenses.
Gartenlaub, who has since taken over as facilitator of New Horizons, said without the help from the fund she could have been forced to go without her medication, causing her condition to degenerate.
"[Without the fund] I probably would have not been able to get the drug, and there might have been unfortunate consequences," said Gartenlaub.
The Transgender Emergency Fund will hold a benefit April 18 at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Worcester, featuring a performance by the Tranny Road Show, a traveling performance troupe. Since the fund launched in September, said Pack, it has given out about $4800 in emergency funds to 25 low-income clients. Some have needed assistance getting money for heat or for rent; others have needed funds for medical co-pays or transportation costs. The fund has also worked to connect clients to agencies that can provide more comprehensive support services.
"Last month I actually had a lady who had literally gotten off the train from another state and had nothing and was in the Boston area, and I was able to hook her up with [the transgender outreach program] Transcend at Cambridge Cares [About AIDS]. ... The fund at this time is best thought of as a supplement to help folks. There’s no way we could run a social service agency," said Pack. "The intent is to provide financial help to our community, and the funding itself comes from the trans community, so it’s us helping us."
The fund, which relies on AIDS Project Worcester to serve as its fiscal sponsor, has thus far raised more than $5000. Pack, fund co-founder Cha Cha Connor and a handful of other volunteers review each application for assistance. Initially the fund was designed to serve the Worcester-area trans community, but Pack said they got enough requests from other parts of the state that they opened up eligibility to all Massachusetts residents.
Pack said in addition to fundraising he hopes to recruit community members from across the state to serve on a fund steering committee that will determine the direction of the fund’s work going forward.
Pack, now the prevention and education coordinator for AIDS Project Worcester, said the idea for the fund came from similar efforts during the early days of the AIDS crisis.
"When we first had the idea of doing it last March, about this time last year, it was based on the model of the AIDS emergency funds in the 1980s before there was any sort of government support," said Pack. "We were doing it to see if it could be done, and we were very pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of support not only from the trans community but from all of our allies across the state. ... We’ve proven that, yes, it can be done, and we’re going to continue doing it."
The fundraiser for the Transgender Emergency Fund takes place April 18 at the First Unitarian Church of Worcester, 90 Main Street. Tickets are $12, and the event begins at 3 p.m.
- Ethan Jacobs
Civil union pioneers plan to wed
MONTPELIER, Vt. - Now that Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage, the three couples that pioneered Vermont’s civil unions law plan to marry.
Stan Baker says he and his partner Peter Harrigan plan to marry in September when the bill becomes law, according to the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus.
They were one of three couples who sued the state in 1997 for the right to get married, which led to the creation of Vermont’s first-in-the-nation civil unions law.
Lois Farnham and Holly Puterbaugh also plan to wed. Puterbaugh says they were happy with civil unions, but it wasn’t enough.
The third couple to sue the state 12 years ago, Nina Beck and Stacy Jolles, also plan to wed soon after the bill becomes law.
- Associated Press
Maine moves gay marriage hearing to larger hall
AUGUSTA, Maine - Because so many people are expected to turn out, Maine’s Legislature has moved a public hearing on a gay marriage proposal to the Augusta Civic Center.
The Judiciary Committee also has changed the date of its daylong public hearing from April 24 to April 22. Doors will open at 8 a.m.
The proposal is co-sponsored by more than 60 lawmakers. It would repeal a state law that limits marriage to a man and a woman and replace it with authorization of marriage between any two people. It also would recognize same-sex marriage in other states where it is legal.
- Associated Press
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