Susan’s Place Avoids Shutting Down
A long-time forum for trans people, Susan’s Place, received the donations it needs to keep operating after a desperate plea for help.
by Aly Gibbs
Susan’s Place, a forum created thirty years ago for transgender people to share information amongst each other and socialize, narrowly avoided shutting down due to lack of funds earlier this week.
Founded in 1995 by Susan Larson, the web forum was initially created to replace the web chat function on another popular transgender forum. By 2015, the website was visited by millions annually, and hosted thousands of conversations moderated by a team of more than eighty volunteers. As traditional forums waned in popularity, places like Reddit and Twitter (and, more recently, Bluesky) became hubs of activity for younger trans people online, while Susan’s Place retained an older user base.
Larson has said that she has received countless messages of thanks from users over the years, some of whom say that the website saved their lives, either through information and resources or the direct support of other users and moderators. That certainly seems likely, given the general lack of knowledge regarding trans people, medical transition, and the trans community in the 1990s and 2000s.
Unfortunately, Susan’s Place was not a helpful space for all trans people.
Trans people on other websites, when asked why they disliked Susan’s Place, have suggested that the forum’s restrictions on topics such as DIY hormone therapy and overall preference towards older binary trans women are unappealing. Many people have also said that Larson’s frequent fundraising requests are offputting. Larson herself has said that the forum, which she built and maintains herself, is also her primary source of income.
Larson even took to Reddit herself, once, to engage with users of the subreddit r/asktransgender. Larson’s original post has since been deleted, but many of her comments can still be seen throughout the thread, striking a combative tone with naysayers who came forward with critiques of Susan’s Place.
Other posts in the thread make accusations of “cliquey” behavior and toxicity that has harmed younger users. One user claimed that Larson had posted a link to the thread on Susan’s Place and insisted that her users follow her there to support her against “an ongoing slander campaign,” a practice discouraged as brigading by Redditors.
In her plea for donations (which has since been removed and replaced by an announcement declaring that the forum is saved), Larson mentioned that the COVID-19 pandemic brought donations to the website to a standstill, and a massive data loss a few years later was the final nail in the coffin. In her latest announcement, she says enough donations have come in to keep the site up for “the next several months.”
“For the first time since 2020, it feels like an elephant has finally climbed off my back. I can stand up straight, breathe, and feel a moment of peace. You didn't just save a website—you lifted a ton of stress that has been pressing on my shoulders for years. The sleepless nights, the constant worry about whether we'd make it one more month—it's gone, at least for now. You gave me—and all of us—room to hope again,” Larson’s update reads. “This community is my family. For nearly 30 years, you've reminded me why I keep going: because we look out for one another. If you've ever found hope, comfort, or family here, please consider joining the circle of people making sure Susan's Place is here for the next generation, too.”
Susan’s Place, and Larson herself, have been polarizing figures in the trans community for over a decade. Even Larson’s staunchest haters attest to the forum’s wealth of helpful knowledge on trans surgeries; many years of experiences and results are accrued on the forum, while similar information is often scrubbed from websites like Reddit or Twitter for various reasons. At the same time, accusations of transmedicalism and transfemme exclusivity don’t seem to be entirely unfounded, and plenty of people have their own horror stories about Susan’s Place.
Regardless, it seems like Larson’s forum is here to stay, for the time being. Perhaps it’s a good thing that we haven’t lost one more refuge for trans folks, no matter how controversial it can be, given the rising tide of hatred for our community.
Aly Gibbs (She/They) is a trans writer who reports on news important to the queer community.
