Queer Joy. Queer Care. This September, We’re Giving Back to JayDoc’s GAN

When hundreds of us fill In the Lowest Ferns on September 12, we’re coming together to dance, connect, celebrate and experience the kind of queer joy that happens when our community takes over a space together.

But this Queer Bar Takeover is also about taking care of each other.

We’re proud to announce that the raffle at our September Queer Bar Takeover will benefit GAN at JayDoc Free Clinic, helping provide gender-affirming medical care to transgender and gender-diverse people in our community.

And this is care that can make a very real difference in someone’s life.

What Is JAYDOC GAN?

JayDoc Free Clinic is a student-run free medical clinic associated with the University of Kansas Medical Center. For more than two decades, JayDoc has worked to remove financial barriers to health care for uninsured and underinsured people across the Kansas City area.

Gender Affirming Night is one of JayDoc's specialty programs, created specifically to support transgender and gender-diverse people in Kansas and Missouri seeking gender-affirming hormone therapy.

The program provides free physician visits and laboratory testing for underinsured patients beginning hormone therapy. It offers both masculinizing and feminizing hormone therapy and works with patients through their first year of treatment before helping connect them with a provider for continued care.

But their support extends beyond the exam room.

Through partnerships with other community providers, Gender Affirming Night can also help connect patients with resources for legal name and gender-marker changes, obtaining health insurance, letters of support related to transition, and information about gender-affirming surgeries.

For someone trying to navigate transition without adequate insurance or financial resources, having a place to turn for knowledgeable, affirming care matters.

JayDoc Free Clinic

Taking Care of Our Trans Community

Queer Bar Takeover has always been about creating spaces where LGBTQ+ people can show up exactly as they are.

This month, we have an opportunity to carry that idea beyond the dance floor.

At a time when transgender people continue to face barriers to accessing affirming health care, we're putting our fundraising dollars toward something tangible: helping trans and gender-diverse people in our own community get the medical care they need.

The money raised through our raffle will go directly toward supporting this work and helping JayDoc provide care to transgender and gender-diverse patients.

That's something worth showing up for.

$2 at a Time

One of our favorite things about the Queer Bar Takeover raffle is that nobody has to make a huge donation to make a difference.

Raffle tickets are just $2.

Buy one. Buy five. Buy twenty.

Choose the prizes you want to win and drop your tickets into those drawings.

Those individual $2 donations might not seem enormous on their own. But put hundreds of us in a room together, and they add up quickly.

That's community.

In fact, donor support is an important part of how JayDoc is able to provide free care. Donations to the clinic have helped fund laboratory testing and other patient-care needs—exactly the kinds of resources that allow patients who might otherwise face financial barriers to receive care.

Joy Is Part of How We Take Care of Each Other

There's a reason we've been talking about queer joy as an act of resistance for this Takeover.

Throughout our history, queer people have gathered together during difficult times. We've built chosen families. We've created spaces to dance. We've cared for one another. We've found ways to experience joy even when the world around us made that difficult.

September 12 is another chance to do that.

We'll dance inside.

We'll dance outside.

We'll cheer for our drag performers.

We'll meet people we didn't know when we walked through the door.

And while we're doing it, we'll raise money to help members of our trans community access affirming medical care.

We deserve to dance.

We deserve to be cared for.

And we can do both.

Join Us September 12

Queer Bar Takeover: In the Lowest FernsSaturday, September 129 PM–Midnight21+

Featuring music by DJ Josh The Wash with a second DJ outside, plus drag performances by Kora Kay and Minti Varieties.

Throughout the night, visit the raffle table, meet the people behind Gender Affirming Night, learn more about their work and enter to win some incredible prizes.

Every $2 raffle ticket supports Gender Affirming Night at JayDoc Free Clinic.

Come dance with us. Come meet someone new. Come celebrate queer joy.

And together, let's take care of our community.