Ts Madison shares heartbreaking story of trans schoolmate who was murdered at 15
TS Madison shares heartbreaking story of a trans classmate who was murdered at 15 (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
Reality TV star Ts Madison has shared the tragic story of a trans classmate who was murdered at just 15 years old, saying it was someone she was “in awe of” at school.
Speaking on the Pierre’s Panic Room podcast, Madison explained her classmate had come out as trans at a very young age, and had helped her to realise that she is also trans.
She said her classmate had been shot at the age of 15 by a group of boys that had previously been “f**king around with her”.
“I cried for so long… I cried viciously, Pierre,” Madison said.
The Bros star and Drag Race guest judge explained that her classmate was the first trans girl she had met, before she had “realised who I was”.
She said on the podcast: “I came from a Christian home, so I had never ever seen anything that came close to being remotely like me, and she would come to school… she was nothing else but a girl.
‘She never came back’
“I was so in awe and so taken aback by her, because I’d never seen anything like that… She was oozing femininity,” Madison continued.
She explained that the class had gone for spring break, and that “I came back, but she never came back, she was killed” at the age of 15.
Madison added: “That was 30 years ago… I said to myself, I wonder what her life would have been like. I wonder, does she see me from heaven… does she see me from heaven and say ‘yes Timothy’.”
@TsMadisonatl1, this story is heartbreaking. I hate this happened. ? pic.twitter.com/kCiaDjBamk
— ✨?✨ (@research_jpg) November 9, 2022
Madison explained that it’s important for trans people to tell their own stories, as straight, cis people “don’t have that experience” of having gone through transphobia.
“I know what it’s like to almost be murdered… for being who I am, unapologetically,” she added.
“I’m tired of it, I’m 45 years old… I’ve been seeing this going on for 30 years.”
The murder rate of trans women, particularly trans women of colour, in the United States remains unacceptably high, with Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reporting that at least 32 trans or gender non-conforming people have been violently killed in the country this year.
Sadly, the true toll of such violent deaths could be much higher as too often these deaths go unreported or misreported.
HRC said: “It is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color, especially Black transgender women.
“We must all work together to cultivate acceptance, reject hate and end stigma for everyone in the trans and gender non-conforming community.”
