Help a trans artist move to somewhere better!

Introduction

Hey everyone! First of all, thank you for clicking and reading this!

My name is Farid, I am a 23 year old transgender and disabled artist living in Malaysia. I made this crowdfunding campaign to get help in moving out of my parents' house in this remote area to relocate to a more accessible home in or near the city of Kuala Lumpur.

The slideshow shows examples of my artwork! You will really be helping an artist out!

Why do you want to move?

There are two main reasons I want to move out:

1. My parents are extremely queerphobic.

Being a transgender and bisexual man, I have been deep in the closet (and still am) due to the laws of this country also being very queerphobic that can lead to my phsyical danger (anywhere from torture to conversion therapy to death).

My parents share the same mindset and have expressed multiple times of their pure hatred of the LGBT+ community, which is why I have never came out in fear of my life. I do not want to depend on them any longer. Currently I depend on them for a car and a roof over my head. I pay my own bills and groceries and gas.

2. I cannot expand my freelancing career here.

I stay in an extremely remote area where it is hard for me to expand my career as a freelance illustrator and character designer. I cannot do conventional jobs due to my disability, so I am a full time registered freelancer. This job is very unstable and hard to sustain when you are not known.

However, most opportunities can be found through networking such as events, workshops, shows and the like for artists to meet and mingle and get connected. All of these frequently happen only in the KL/Selangor area, and rarely where I live.

Thus, moving to a bigger area will help me have a steadier foothold in reaching my ultimate goal of emigrating from this oppresive country by getting myself out of a toxic environment and furthering my career.

How will the funding money be spent?

From calculations, I would need around 15k Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) to have a just enough safety net for me to stay in the KL/Selangor area for about ten months due to cost of living there.

• I will need to find a place to rent, most likely a master bedroom for myself in a shared house space, which usually costs about 400-500MYR per month, including utility bills. So far: 500MYR
• I will need to accustom for groceries and cooking and other personal expenses, which also tallies to about RM500 a month. So far: 1000MYR
• I might be lacking a car thus I have to rely on public transport, which with enough travel to and fro for events and such, would tally at most RM50 per month. So far: 1050MYR
• I am not insured as no insurance covers mental disabilities, and getting to sessions alone cost RM150 per session. The recommended amount of sessions per month is 4, but I can budget it to once a month to survive. So far: 1200MYR
• For any emergency that might happen such as equipment breakdown or share rides services or medical emergencies etc, I would set aside 200MYR per month. So far: 1400MYR

All in all, 1400MYR X ten months is 14k MYR.

Roughly, 1USD = 4MYR. With that, 4k USD would equal to about 16k MYR, which would be ample for me.

Do I get anything in return for funding?

Yes, depending on how much you give! As an artist by trade, I would be more than happy to provide sketches for different tiers of donation, handmade for you as a thank you.

Do note that I am still working alongside this fundraiser, and the sketches are done at limited free time and as a gesture of thanks. There are no revisions, think of it as a little napkin doodle as a thank you for donating to the cause!