Donnie Collins, 20, a sophomore at Emerson College in Boston, was born female but has been living as a male since he was 17, said Jason Meier, the college’s director of student activities.
When Collins, a visual media arts major, pledged the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity earlier this year, he told fraternity brothers his insurance would not cover the cost of surgery to remove his breasts, Meier said.
“The men rallied behind him,” Meier said, launching an online campaign to raise about $8,000 to pay for the so-called upper body procedure.
Collins was born with, and still has, female private partia but identifies as a man, according to Meier. He has not had other s*x change-related surgeries, he said.
The campaign has raised more than $17,000, and the fraternity plans to donate additional funds to the Jim Collins Foundation, a group that provides financial assistance for transgender surgeries. There is no relation between Donnie and Jim Collins.
In an interview with WBZ-TV in Boston, Collins said the operation would consist of a double mastectomy.
“I guess I don’t think of it as a s*x change,” he said. “I think of it more as just making my body congruent with how I think of myself.” [Reuters]
