In July of 2024 Texas A&M announced that gender-affirming health services would be ended for students at the Beutel Health Center. Reports indicate that about 40 students were impacted and would have to find other methods of care as those services would end in August 2024. In response, LGBTQ+ community leaders in conjunction with Pride Community Center held listening sessions to try to heal the pain this decision wrought while trying to find steps forward. On September 24, 2024 the Board of Directors of Pride Community Center, Inc approved a plan to provide supplemental funds to selected recipients for the purposes of covering gender-affirming health care.
Leadership within Pride Community Center, Inc have devised the parameters of micro-grants in amounts from $200 to $500 for applicants chosen by the grant committee on a quarterly basis. Grant monies available for disbursement will be dependent upon funds raised for the purposes of these micro-grants. Number of grantees awarded will be capped at 5 per $1000 raised and will be decided upon via a rubric demonstrating urgency and need to LGBTQ+ Texas A&M students formerly receiving gender-affirming care from Texas A&M. The program will be expanded in subsequent years to LGBTQ+ Texas A&M students and community members. Information about qualifications and expectations can be found on this page, as well as the opportunity to donate to this fund
Purpose of this Micro-grant
To support the very real and ongoing health needs of persons within the LGBTQ+ community that need to access gender affirming care.
Qualifications
Applicants receiving micro-grant funds must meet the following parameters:
- Applicant is a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
- Applicants must be of legal age to enter into a contract in the state of Texas.
- Funds awarded are intended only to supplement gender-affirming care, not act as sole provision of those services.
- Recipient is of legal age in Texas to enter into contracts.
- Texas A&M Students who have previously been receiving gender-affirming care from Texas A&M Health system and are currently experiencing trouble accessing such care solely due to the withdrawal of previously provided services.
- Applicant is a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Expectations
- Applicants will provide verification of enrollment at Texas A&M University. Enrollment verification can be accessed via Howdy. For more information check out the TAMU Enrollment and Degree Verification page at aggie.tamu.edu
- Grantees will keep receipts and provide copies of receipts to Pride Community Center’s treasurer in a timely manner
- Grantees are asked to provide a bio and picture for Pride Community Center marketing purposes. Such Bio and personal narrative are not required, nor mandatory. It is appreciated, but each grantee is encouraged to weigh their own risks in sharing such information.
- Grantees are requested to submit a testimonial of how the micro-grant helped them in their gender-affirming care and the impact upon their life. Such testimonials may be indicated to be anonymous.
- Once quarterly recipients are announced each recipient has 45 days within which to share contact information with Pride Community Center’s treasurer for setup of distribution of funds.
Rubric and advice to meet rubric
When filling out the application, please present as complete a picture of your financial need as possible. Be sure to indicate your financial strategy for acquiring care, cost of services where possible, and where this micro-grant might help you in your approach. All applications will be judged against each other based on the following rubric:
- Completeness and thoroughness of application
- Funding strategy
- Urgency
- Impact
Calendar Cycle
This program will begin in fourth quarter of 2024, with grantees announced and funds awarded in January 2025. There are 4 phases to the quarterly grant cycle. All applicants are requested to apply once per calendar year; qualifying applicants not awarded in one quarter will roll over for consideration in the next quarter.
First month and a half of each quarter: Fundraising for the Gender Affirming Care Micro Grant fund
15th of second month for 30 days: Application is open
15the of third month till end of quarter: Applications are reviewed and deliberated upon. Grantees are chosen
First week of new quarter: Grantees notified, public announcement (if desire to remain anonymous expressed, identities will be withheld), micro-grant funds disbursed
Application
Application for micro-grant funds is done via filling out the google form linked below for qualified candidates.
Please fill out all sections of the application. Upon email confirmation, the form will be sent to the review committee
Recipients
Recipients who have agreed to share their identity are listed below, when an awardee has opted out of sharing, the entry will appear as anonymous
| Awarded | Recipients |
|---|---|
| Q4 2024 | Raine (they / them) Char Farfadet (they/ them/theirs) |
| Q1 2025 | Anonymous (She/ Her / Hers) Cara Jones (She / Her / Hers) |
Testimonials
Stories about how the Pride Community Center, gender-affirming micro grant has benefitted recipients:
I’m still relatively new to college life. It’s been so difficult adjusting to the everyday structure of it all. Waking up on my own, catching the bus, navigating campus. I’ve been through a lot of unfamiliar experiences thus far. Finances are also something new to me, and as a trans woman living on my own for the first time I knew that I wanted HRT to help me realize my true self. Of course affording this care has been a struggle. Getting a job in the BCS area was hard enough, but balancing that with student life and other finances was incredibly stressful. There have been times I was scared that I would never be able to keep paying for gender-affirming care. But this grant will allow me to continue to take that self-actualizing step through the summer. I’m very thankful to the Pride Community Center for helping me out in such a time of instability, and I have hope that others like me will one day receive the same kindness.
-Cara Jones
published September 25, 2024
updated April 16, 2025