Our friend Scottie Thomaston needs your help.

If you don’t already know Scottie, he is a tireless champion for LGBT rights, working for Courage Campaign. He started his advocacy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and disability rights at Daily Kos around 2007, and he now works for Courage Campaign, covering legal issues impacting the LGBT community.

Scottie has used a wheelchair since he was fifteen. He developed a rapid form of scoliosis and had surgery to try to prevent it from worsening. The risky surgery paralyzed him from the waist down. He recently fell ill, developing a pressure sore that caused sepsis and a host of other problems. He has been hospitalized for several months, and almost died at the end of 2015.

Now in a post-surgery rehab, the facility is looking to move him from his single room into a shared room unless he can pay an additional $30 per day. It’s not known how many more days he will need to continue his stay in the facility so it’s difficult to determine how much he will need.

We also don’t know, and neither does he, exactly when the extra payment will be needed. It may come as early as Monday or Tuesday, March 14-15, so we need to gather the money as quickly as possible. It may also come later, because it will be a larger amount if he needs to stay in the facility for a prolonged time due to an unexpected issue.

But we can’t leave our friend in such a bleak situation. So while we work tirelessly for a much better social/economic safety net for all, including people with disabilities, we’re reaching out.

Three months in the rehab is a conservative estimate - that would come out to $2,700.

Curtis’ personal note: I recently spent time in a post-surgery rehab facility after an accident at home and I can tell you being in a shared room is not conducive to healing. There is no privacy and you never know what kind of roommate you will end up with. Mine couldn’t sleep with the light off and kept the television on all night and the facility would not enforce nighttime quiet hours. Scottie deserves to stay in a private room, let’s help make that happen.

In addition, when he is released he will also need a new bed at home and a new wheelchair to prevent further serious health issues. Another $2300 should cover that expense.

Any extra money he gets will go to a used truck for him to drive, and to an LGBT charity.

Please give what you can, any amount helps. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

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