Bring holiday cheer to trans youth by donating to Trans Santa

If you’re able to spread some some good tidings this holiday season, Trans Santa makes it easy for you.

Trans Santa is a mutual aid social media campaign that connects anonymous gift givers with queer and trans youth who are unhoused, in foster care, or otherwise without crucial support they need to thrive. It’s a bit like Operation Santa, the USPS’s anonymous gift-giving program, but specifically for this vulnerable community.

Here’s how it works: Until Dec. 20, trans and non-binary young people (under the age of 24) can apply for the 2021 Christmas campaign. In addition to completing a form on the Trans Santa website, participants upload a (handwritten or digital) letter to Trans Santa and create an Amazon gift registry. According to the application, the campaign receives hundreds of submissions daily.

Letters are then posted on the Trans Santa Instagram page for donors to look through. To buy a gift, santas click the linkin.bio; each letter on that page is tied directly to a different person’s Amazon registry. Click through to see what gifts a particular person wants, and then purchase through Amazon.

The process is safe and anonymous — last names aren’t on the registry, and Amazon hides addresses from purchasers.

Actor Indya Moore co-founded Trans Santa in 2020, and the program itself is run by a group of trans people, according to an FAQ highlight on the Instagram page. In addition to buying gifts, santas can also donate to Trans Santa all year long.

If the letters on the Instagram feed aren’t enough to encourage you to donate, the account’s stories and highlights — which feature thank you messages — will. “I am overjoyed, humbled, and beyond grateful for what Trans Santa and everyone have done for me,” said a participant named Sam in the Trans Santa highlights from 2020. “My whole wishlist was gifted to me and it has left me feeling so dang loved.”