Following newly elected President Trump’s slew of executive orders that, among other things, bans the “forced” use of pronouns and prohibits taxpayer funds from being used towards gender-affirming care, Boygenius singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus has pledged $10,000 towards trans people’s gender-affirming surgery. 

In a post made on X yesterday (January 22), the three-time Grammy Award winner wrote: “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 Virginia-raised Uzbek-Irish musician also gave a nod to the US’ recent and worrying backsliding on trans rights, writing: “The government will never be the source of our validation or protection, we have to do it ourselves.” The post has since been viewed over a million times and has been flooded with responses from trans people across the US. 

Dacus has long been vocal in her support of trans rights. During a 2023 Boygenius performance at Coachella, she spoke critically of anti-LGBTQ+ bills that had been proposed in the US states of Florida and Missouri, proclaiming: “trans lives matter” and “fuck Ron DeSantis”. Later that year, in response to former US President Barack Obama including Boygenius track “Not Strong Enough” in his summer playlist, Dacus tweeted that he was a “war criminal“.

Read Lucy Dacus’ recent conversation with Dazed’s Halima Jibril here.