Jackie's Top Surgery Recovery Fund

Hi my name is Jackie Rivera (they/them)!

 

I'm getting top surgery on May 28th and I need help to cover my basic needs while I'm recovering for 2 months and unable to work.

 

Here's my story...

 

When I came out as non-binary 8 years ago, a high school friend reflected back to me their shock at how many times a queer person has to “come out”. Now on my 3rd coming out, I have the opportunity to do something so personally affirming - a truth that felt so unattainable I couldn’t even recognize how much I needed it.

 

One thing about me, I realized, is that I will suffer needlessly. I have a high threshold for being unsatisfied with myself.

 

But then I had a dream in the summer of 2024, in it my own mother had arranged for me to get top surgery in my sleep - inside the dream I woke up to a beautiful flat chest, the scars curved in the shape of flowers, in utter disbelief and with a love and freedom I’d never known - the relief was epic. I didn’t know until that morning that I could or maybe I wasn’t ready to yet to give myself the existential gift to pursue my truest form.

 

When I was a kid, my parents had recorded from the TV onto a VHS this live-action production of Pinocchio. It starred a woman as Pinocchio, and this became the origin of both my gender and my love for theater.

 

While I don’t quite share the yearning to be a “real boy” like Pinocchio, I do connect with the need to be alive inside the body of personal freedom. I don’t want to be a boy per-se. I just want to be in my most free body. The one that will allow me to access the best of myself.

 

Now, as a freelance theater worker with no wage protection for medical leave, it would mean so much to me if you could help me during my recovery with a donation so that I can pay rent, and eat, and care for my dog Meeko while I become who I was always meant to be.

Thank you all so much for coming with me on this adventure!