Save the Date: Duckstream 2025

Hey folks! Kaye here with an announcement about Duckstream 2025, this year's charity streaming marathon. We will be live for 48 hours from Friday, December 12 - Sunday, December 14, starting and ending at 9:00 pm Eastern, 6:00 pm Pacific on the Duckfeed Twitch channel.

The event is always a blast, as the Portland folks stream together during the night, and myself and others stream remotely during the day. It's an event full of games, laughs, and inside jokes that bubble up and evaporate over the course of a single weekend. Please mark this on your calendar so you can watch, and give (if you can!).

This is our first year raising money for a new charity. As times have gotten harder, we've wanted to shift to a national cause that provides material assistance directly to trans people. That is why we will be streaming to support Point of Pride, an organization that provides financial aid to trans people for gender affirming care and resources.

For an example of some of what they do, take a look at some of their programs like the Annual Transgender Surgery Fund, their HRT Access Fund, and their Electrolysis Support Fund. They also provide free chest binders and femme shapewear. And their support network extends across the entire US.

Gender affirming care is life-saving, but too many people in the US are locked out of it even if their state still allows it. The economic reality for trans people overall is pretty grim. 34% of trans people are experiencing poverty, and 18% of trans people are unemployed, a rate that the general population of the US hasn't seen since the Great Depression. And it gets worse if you're disabled or Black. These people are locked out of getting the life-saving care they need and direct aid like what Point of Pride provides is effective at getting them over those financial hurdles.

TransActive, our partner since 2014, still does great work and if you can give to them, we encourage you to do so. Our split from them has to do with changes to their priorities. But priorities change as conditions change, and as things have deteriorated we've been eyeing a broader, more direct cause for a little bit now.

Point of Pride should be set up in most employer's giving match systems, so look into that ahead of time and see if you can get your donation matched to make it go further.

We know shit is very hard right now, and not everyone will be in a position to give. The wealthiest 10% of people now account for 49.2% of the consumption that happens in the US. That means less money for all of us to use on our own lives, let alone helping others. If you're in this position, you can still help us by spreading the word, watching, and participating in the chat. If you're lucky enough to be able to make charitable gifts, please consider making Duckstream and Point of Pride part of your plans.

Speaking personally, this will be my first Duckstream as an out trans woman, and that feels like a big deal. I'm looking forward to being able to raise money for, and speak about, this cause as my real self. It was difficult and weird to talk about trans peoples' needs while pretending not to be one!

We will have more details as the 12th draws closer. Anything important will be gathered up and announced here so you know what to do when it's time to take action.

Until then, thank you for everything, and please take care of yourselves and each other.