I ONLY FW GAY BOYS, THEYS, BAD BITCHES, AND DYKES

Hey! I hate to be making this post, but I don’t have a lot of other options. My name is Kay. I’m an artist and theatre professional in Portland. I haven’t had consistent dental insurance since I was 18 and I desperately need some dental work. I need a root canal, two new crowns, replacements for two crowns that were poorly done when I was younger, and several fillings. I try to take good care of my teeth, but a combination of bad genetics, bad dentists, and bad insurance have resulted in a lot of problems. Although I’m employed at a theatre full-time, they only offer insurance to employees who meet a certain threshold, and the state insurance I can afford will only cover a small amount of the work I need done.

Most of these cavities are years old, and have been slowly getting worse to the point where I can no longer ignore them. It’s starting to cause significant disruption to my life. I’m in pain from day to day, I’m filling holes with dental wax to minimize irritation, I can only chew out of one corner of my mouth, I’m starting to lose weight because it’s too hard to eat, the dentist I consulted said it’s just a matter of time before he has to start pulling teeth instead of repairing them. I’m even starting to feel embarrassed about smiling.

My new dentist is great and has already offered me the biggest discounts they have available. But after insurance I’m still looking at $7800 out of pocket. I work at a nonprofit and my husband is underemployed—there’s no way we can come up with a fraction of that over the next year, let alone all of it. My parents live on a fixed income and can’t help me out. They require payment upfront, so I can’t just get them done and pay them back over time. I’m running out of options and I’d like to be able to eat again. Anything you can contribute will make a huge difference in my daily quality of life, not to mention my peace of mind. Thanks for reading. ♥️

They want buckskin and face paint, drumming, songs in languages they can’t understand recorded for them but with English subtitles, of course. They want educated, well spoken, but not too smart. Christian, well behaved, never question. They want to learn the history of the people, but not the ones that are here now, waving signs in their faces, asking them for clean drinking water, asking them why their women are going missing, asking them why their land is being ruined.

They want fantastical stories of Indians that used to roam this land. They want my culture behind glass in a museum.