Star Wars Fans Raise Over $10,000 For Transgender Law Center

(September 17, 2020)— Today the Star Wars community is proud to announce that over $10,000 has been raised to support the Transgender Law Center. 

When the hype around the second season of The Mandalorian was colored by the unfortunate rhetoric of one of the major cast members, which dismissed the importance of pronouns for the transgender community — fans of Star Wars knew that they had to do something. 

“Being an ally also means putting advocacy into action.” Maggie Lovitt, of the Star Wars Friends Podcast and Your Money Geek said in a recent interview with Dorkside. That’s exactly what happened when Lovitt teamed up with Eric Eilersen of Youtini and The Living Force Podcast and Candace Kaw of The Geeky Waffle to spearhead the GoFundMe. 

On the afternoon of Sunday, September 13, 2020 the page went live and within an hour the first goal of $1000 was met. By Thursday, the fundraiser soared past $10,000, with Star Wars fans and creatives alike joining the cause. Kaw summed up the campaign perfectly, “After a lot of negativity, it’s so beautiful to see everyone come together. It was great to turn the anger I’ve felt into something productive and positive.”

Star Wars fans were thrilled to see support from Leslye Headland, showrunner for the upcoming Untitled Star Wars Disney+ series; Shelby Young, the voice of Star Wars Forces of Destiny’s Princess Leia; and Bonds of Brass author Emily Skrutskie. 

Kaw also launched a TeePublic store selling LGBT+ themed Star Wars merch, featuring designs donated by the Serving Pink Milk podcast. All the profits will be donated to the fundraiser. 

As a loving, inclusive Star Wars community, the team encourages everyone who is looking forward to the upcoming adventures of Mando and The Child to help out our neighbors in the trans community by supporting the Transgender Law Center. 

True to George Lucas’ philosophy the focus of the fundraising campaign is to, "Love people. That's basically all Star Wars is."

This Sunday, September 20th, Geeky Waffle and the GALactic Podcast will host a benefit livestream discussion of The Clone Wars arc on the Siege of Mandalore to benefit the GoFundMe campaign. 

The team can be found on Twitter at @maggieofthetown • @geeky_waffle • @ericeilersen.