Last week, Lucy Dacus announced her new album, Forever Is a Feeling. Now that Donald Trump has been re-inaugurated as US president — and immediately put out a ludicrous executive order that the government will recognize male and female as the only sexes (which "does not include the concept of 'gender identity'") — the singer-songwriter has offered to pledge $10,000 USD in support of people's gender-affirming healthcare through crowdsourcing campaigns.
Dacus took to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter earlier today, writing, "if trans people wanna comment surgery gofundmes, I'm gonna give away 10k in $500 increments until it's gone, & if other people wanna scroll through and make donations, please do."
"The government will never be the source of our validation or protection," she added, "we have to do it ourselves."
As per Rolling Stone, the thread has received over 175 responses since it was posted, with people in the replies sharing GoFundMe links for their own surgeries and those of close friends who are also saving up.
Trump declared in his inaugural address that "it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two sexes: male and female." Part of the executive order he signed on his first day in office (January 20) prohibits the use of taxpayer funds to pay for gender-affirming healthcare, in addition to targeting incarcerated trans people by ordering that prison placement must be dictated by sex assigned at birth.
Dacus has historically been a strong proponent of trans rights, with her and her boygenius bandmates having taken a stand against anti-2SLGBTQQIA+ legislation that banned drag in the state of Tennessee back in 2023.