UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who helped heal my broke heart this Valentine’s Day! 💔 Our immediate needs have been met. I’m so very grateful!

I shouldn’t need to do this.

Unlike last Valentines Day, I’m working. I actually now have two steady jobs! Those of you who read this blog regularly know Massage Envy fired me from my customer service job in January 2018, 5 days after I came out at work as transgender. I have been freelance writing and editing for three years, ever since becoming a widow and resigning my job as news editor at The Advocate Magazine so I could move back to Connecticut and raise our three children. And I’m sure everyone knows I was fired from ABC 5 years ago after coming out.

Now, things are finally really looking up: Last month I started teaching 5 days a week at the University of Hartford, and I was just announced as the managing editor of the website, Outsports. I’m very excited to finally share some good news!

But the reason I’m writing to you today is because I’m in that awful place where new jobs start but you don’t see a dime for several weeks, and that’s not the fault of the university or my bosses at Vox. This is entirely the fault of a company called Pride Media.

As I’ve made clear in my social media posts, I’m one of dozens of freelance writers owed thousands of dollars, by this corporate parent company of Out Magazine, among others. Check out the hashtag #OutOwes.

They only owe me $400, but that $400 would bridge the gap between unemployment and steady work, and truly change the lives of my children and me.

Our life savings is gone. With that $400, I’d be able to pay the bill to reinstate my auto insurance policy. I’d be able to pay the bill to reconnect the internet service and basic cable TV. We already have an antenna, but my job requires me to keep an eye on news and sports channels that are only available via cable. I’d be able to pay the cell phone bill. Most importantly, I’d be able to buy groceries for my family; we’ve got enough for today but even with rationing, we’ll soon run out of food.

I hate having to ask. But I’ve asked Pride Media, I’ve even begged, and yet… nothing. Not even a promise of “the check is in the mail.”

The lowest point was earlier this week, when my daughter and I ran out of feminine pads. I asked a woman on the Pride Media team, please take some of the money you owe me, please go to a store, please buy us some pads and please, please, please send them overnight.

Nothing.

Two friends saw my pleas on social media and yesterday they sent us $18 each. That’s “Chai” in Hebrew, and traditionally a symbolic and meaningful gift. Those $36 mean the world to us.

I used it to buy pads, buy some food, and get us through this crisis until Pride Media and my new employers pay me.

Until then, we’re still in crisis. If you are in a position to help, we really could use it now.

To support us directly, you can send funds through Venmo (@Dawn-Ennis-1) or PayPal (https://www.paypal.me/DawnEnnis). You can also contribute to the Ennis Family Scholarship Fund Trust, either online at this link: https://www.gofundme.com/zc4q96x4

That fund won’t help us in our immediate need, but contributions are still very appreciated and most welcome as every dollar goes toward my children’s education.

My oldest son is 20 and studying at the University of Chicago, and he just got a job at the school library; my daughter is 16, sings in four choirs, and just started working at Goodwill, and my youngest is 12, a Boy Scout and studying for his bar mitzvah in the fall.

Thank you, and I hope you find love today, and always!