Gender-affirming care is life-saving treatment. This care can look like a multitude of different procedures and medications, from hormone replacement therapy to bottom surgery. Yet, one of the biggest barriers to gender-affirming care is its financial burden. 

A common gender-affirming surgery for female to male people is top surgery, which ranges from $6,000 to $10,000, on average. More expensive surgeries, such as male-to-female bottom surgery, cost, on average, $25,000. These prices make gender-affirming surgeries largely inaccessible to college students, who are often already saddled with debt. 

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To make this life-saving care more accessible to students here at USC, USG should follow the Graduate Student Government’s lead and implement a gender-affirming care fund. GSG’s gender-affirming care expenses fund covers one-time expenses, up to $1,000 per student per year, related to gender-affirming care and the cost of transitioning, ranging from fees for changing the name on a birth certificate to the cost of gender-affirming surgery.

Jack Drake, an undeclared sophomore, recently received top surgery, and he told me how much it had changed his life. 

“It’s been a huge boost for my mental health,” Drake said. “It’s really, definitely made me happier as a person, more confident, less anxious.” 

While his insurance covered a large portion of the surgery, Drake said he also saved up for two years to prepare. While Drake had enough funds for his own surgery, he acknowledged that not everyone is in a position to save enough for surgery. 

“A lot of people are not only going to have to try to get it cleared through insurance, which is already a barrier, because you need to have a job that offers it,” said a sophomore majoring in politics, philosophy and economics, who requested not to be named for fear of being targeted because of their gender identity. “But also, then you need to still pay for the care that you’re being given whether or not it’s even being covered at all.” 

Gender-affirming care procedures can have lengthy recovery times as they are major surgeries, and college provides a unique opportunity to more easily accommodate healing time into one’s schedule. With three weeks off for winter break and nearly three months off for summer break, the unique structure of college allows for ample time for rest and recovery. 

For many transgender people, their end goal of transition is to be completely or mostly “stealth” after transition. This means that they want their transgender identity to be completely or mostly indetectable on a day-to-day basis. One of the most helpful ways to become stealth is to have all or a majority of one’s gender-affirming care finished. 

“University is the first place where a lot of people go outside of their families, who may not be as accepting of them … where you can, without the eye of your parents, start getting on hormones, start going to therapy even,” the sophomore who requested anonymity said.

College presents a unique opportunity for students to access gender-affirming care while not having to worry about what their coworkers in their professional career think about their transition. Passing fully by the time one enters the professional workforce allows the transgender person to feel confident in their workplace — and USG could help achieve that. 

Transitioning in college would not only help people feel more confident and comfortable in their future workplace, but also allow them to participate in college clubs and activities. 

“For me, it was always kind of a debate of like, ‘Well, do I want to go to this club meeting and then I have to keep wearing my binder or do I want to go home?” Drake said. “I don’t really have to make those kinds of decisions anymore.”

Receiving gender-affirming care means that transgender people no longer have to sacrifice participating in the things they love because of their painful tucking underwear or chest binder.  They will be able to fully participate in the things they love, not only making them a better student but a better future employee and a happier person. 

USG has a unique opportunity to help an extremely marginalized group of students actualize their full selves. Through a gender-affirming care fund, USG would help support the futures of transgender students at USC. 

Peyton Dacy is a sophomore writing about the struggles queer people face on college campuses and beyond. His column, “Lavender Letters,” runs every other Tuesday.