Welcome to my patreon page!

Welcome to my Patreon page! My name is Abby Wu (吳伊婷; she/her) and I am a veteran transgender activist based in Taipei. For my first post, I wanted to give a thorough self-introduction so that supporters can know who I am and what exactly I am planning to do with your financial support moving forward. 

In 2009, I co-founded the Intersex, Transgender and Transsexual People Care Association (ISTSCare), which I formally registered as an NGO in 2012. For the past decade and a half, I have been involved in transgender rights advocacy and community support. In 2013, I won a historic legal battle with my then spouse that reversed a prior ruling declaring our marriage invalid since we both changed our legal genders to female. You can read more about this historic victory for LGBTQ+ rights, which was de facto the first same-sex marriage in Taiwan, here and here. 

 2013/12/10 Taipei Times print copy of article reporting on Ministry of Health and Welfare’s decision to ease medical requirements for changing one’s legal gender. See full article here.

From 2013 to 2014, I spearheaded efforts with long-time political activist Shih Ming-te (施明德) to abolish the reproductive organ removal surgery requirement for changing one’s legal gender and was almost successful in getting this requirement changed. That same year, ISTSCare also submitted a CEDAW shadow report. 

 2014/01/13 ISTSCare demonstration in front of the Ministry of Interior in protest of their executive order requiring sexual organ removal surgery for changing one’s legal gender (內政部97年11月3日內授中戶字第0970066240號令)

For the past decade, I have continued running ISTSCare, organizing public protests and Transgender Day of Remembrance memorials (2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2023), and engaging in LGBTQ+ civil society work. In the 2024 Taiwanese legislative elections, I was the first openly transgender woman to run for a Legislative Yuan seat as part of Green Party Taiwan’s party list ticket. As a Green Party Taiwan candidate, I was at the forefront of canvassing activities during a historic election season where transgender issues entered into third party politics for the first time in Taiwan. 

I am currently facing financial instability, which is preventing me from continuing my transgender advocacy work at a moment when Taiwan’s transgender rights movement is under unprecedented attack by a newly formed anti-gender movement since fall of 2021 (see here, here, here, and here). As public discourse and attitudes on transgender issues face increasing threat of manipulation by anti-gender movement actors, it is now more important than ever to maintain a high degree of civil society activity and public-facing advocacy work around transgender rights. With your support, I am hoping to fund a variety of projects that I am currently working on. 

I plan to create more content on my YouTube channel aimed at public education on transgender issues. First, I plan to continue my ongoing video series on Taiwan’s anti-gender movement, the first installment of which you can view here. Second, I plan to start a YouTube series called “Transitioning Out of Your Comfort Zone” (跨出舒適圈) aimed at a general non-transgender audience to explain the life situation of transgender people in Taiwan. Lastly, I plan to start a podcast to discuss specific topics surrounding transgender rights such as current efforts to abolish the compulsory surgery requirement for changing one’s legal gender and trans people in the workplace. 

I am currently in the process of shooting a short documentary tentatively titled Going Home with BangZak! (跟著BangZak 回家去), which tells the story of a gender diverse Han-Indigenous polycule’s experience returning to one member’s Indigenous community in Pingtung. Going Home with BangZak! is the first documentary of its kind to simultaneously discuss the intersections between diverse family formation (多元成家), Indigenous urban migration, and transgender issues. We plan to have our first cut of the documentary done by September in order to submit it to the Senao Foundation for the documentary compitition.

I am also in the process of doing preparatory work around starting a Taiwan Hormone Assistance Association under ISTSCare to provide both direct support to financially struggling transgender people in Taiwan who have trouble economically accessing gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), as well as to advocate for the complete inclusion of GAHT under Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system. 

Lastly, I am closely monitoring legal progress around the Executive Yuan’s efforts to draft comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, which would ensure anti-discrimination protections for gender identity, as well as how Taiwan’s administrative courts will rule on cases aimed at abolishing compulsory surgery for changing one’s legal gender (see here for the most recent update). Taiwan’s anti-gender movement has also mobilized extensively around these two issues, meaning that depending on the outcome of these endeavors, adjustments to movement strategy may be necessary. 

I hope to garner a total of $900USD per month of support (roughly the equivalent of a minimum living wage in Taiwan) so that I can fully devote myself to my transgender advocacy work and related projects. Your financial support directly results in my ability to plan and host events supporting Taiwan’s transgender community such as ISTSCare’s annual Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial, produce public-facing educational content on transgender issues, mobilize with other transgender rights civil society organizations in our shared attempts to better the lives of gender diverse people in Taiwan, and continue engaging in the transgender community support work that I have been engaged in for the past decade and a half. 

If you want to support my work but don’t have a lot of financial capacity, you can consider giving as little as $1/month at the Bottle Fans subscription tier. For $5/month, you can join the recommended Bubble Tea Fans subscription tier and get access to my monthly updates. For $10/month, you can join my Hot Pot Fans subscription tier, which also includes early access drafts to my Chinese-language content creation projects. For $40/month at the Steak Fans subscription tier, you will also get exclusive, one-on-one interview access to me regarding any part of my advocacy work once every three months. For $99/month at the highest Lobster Fan subscription tier, you will get one-on-one interview access to me on a monthly basis. 

If you are interested in making a one-time donation, you can do so here: https://buymeacoffee.com/lazurloner

Thank you for reading this far and for considering supporting my work! If you are financially unable to support me, you can still help by sharing my Patreon with anyone you might know who might be interested in supporting transgender rights advocacy work in Taiwan.