Fraternity Raises Money Online for a Brother’s Transgender Operation

Facebook Fraternity brothers of the Emerson College sophomore Donnie Collins raised money for his gender reassignment operation through Indiegogo, a crowd-financing Web site.

Fraternities are not typically considered to be champions of the L.G.B.T. community, but members of Phi Alpha Tau at Emerson College in Boston appear to have shaken the stereotype with a successful online fund-raising appeal to help one of their brothers cover the cost of top surgery, a procedure that is part of a female-to-male transgender transition.

Donnie Collins, a sophomore at Emerson who was born female, was told this month that his university-backed health insurance plan would not cover the cost of the procedure, a double mastectomy and chest reconstruction that is common among female-to-male transgender people who opt for surgery. In a video posted to YouTube, he said the insurance company’s decision left him distraught. “I cried in front of an H&M in the middle of the street,” he said in the video. “It was awkward.”

Mr. Collins began rushing his college’s chapter of Phi Alpha Tau on Feb. 3 and received news that his insurance would not pay for the procedure only three days later. Nevertheless, his new fraternity brothers responded to the situation by raising money for the operation on Indiegogo, a popular crowd-sourced fund-raising Web site.

Video posted by members of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity at Emerson College as part of a fund-raising appeal to pay for an operation for their transgender fraternity brother Donnie Collins.

The initial goal was to raise $2,000 to contribute toward the cost of the roughly $8,000 operation, a target they met in the first week and a half, according to a video statement posted to YouTube by Mr. Collins on Monday. By Wednesday afternoon, the campaign raised over $17,000, a figure that climbed higher and higher as the hours ticked past.

Chuck Bergren-Aragon, a member of Phi Alpha Tau who appeared in the video, described Mr. Collins in atelephone interview as “a great guy who always puts other people above himself,” and said that his situation provided the fraternity, which he said is focused in part on “philanthropy, giving back and community service” with a chance “to really show the Emerson community and people everywhere what we stand for, which is brotherhood.”

How does he feel about the amount of money they have raised so far “The word we are using right now is overwhelmed,” he said.

In the video posted Monday, Mr. Collins appeared at a loss for words in the face of his friends’ efforts. “I don’t even know what to say because the word, thank you, doesn’t even do it anymore,” he said. “What to get out of this is if you are coming out and you are needing support right now, like, find the people who are willing to give it and just accept it.”