Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser proclaimed May 23 officially TS Madison Day in honor of the trans activist and podcast host who recently opened a reentry home for formerly incarcerated Black trans women.
“Ts Madison is a fearless advocate and cultural icon who has used her life and voice to lift up our most vulnerable, standing tall in the face of stigma and speaking truth where silence once reigned,” Bowser’s proclamation reads.
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“Ts Madison has changed the narrative for Black, trans women, using her global platform to demand dignity, challenge
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The decree added that Madison is “a guardian of community, a builder of futures, and a sister to every trans young person dreaming of a world that welcomes them with open arms.”
“Our city is stronger for her truth,” it said, adding that Madison is the “living embodiment of the values that will define World Pride 2025 in Washington DC.”
May 23 was the first day of Black Pride in DC. Video shows Madison finding out about Bowser’s declaration while on stage accepting the trans pioneer in media award.
Madison beams and throws her arms into the air. “I’d like to say thank you to the city… It is a wonderful thing to be recognized and loved while you’re here. I have always fought fearlessly about being exactly who you are… be exactly who you are and the world will fit around you, you don’t have to fit into the world.”
She later said in an interview, “It’s so surreal for me because I used to be a sex worker and this was one of my main cities that I used to come and work…”
She also spoke about getting through the chaos of the current administration.
“The only way that we’re going to get through this administration and everything else is together… We’re Black, we’re able to overcome anything, but we’re only going to be able to overcome together.”
With The Ts Madison Experience, Madison was the first Black trans woman to star in and executive produce her own reality show. She has also received a Grammy certificate for her contribution to Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning album Renaissance.
Madison’s TS Madison Starter House opened in April in Atlanta, Georgia. Madison created it along with NAESM, Inc., an Atlanta-based nonprofit and one of the oldest Black-led HIV/AIDS service organizations in the South, and A New Way of Life’s SAFE Housing Network, a national collective providing safe reentry housing to formerly incarcerated people.
The Starter House occupies Madison’s former home and will welcome up to four women at a time, according to The Atlanta Voice.
The first-of-its-kind program in the South provides residents with psychological support, health and wellness care, and workshops centered on business plan development and project management.
Residents are called “stakeholders” in acknowledgement of their role in the Black queer and trans liberation movement.
“I wanted to use this house as a conduit for girls to become great,” Madison told Gaye Magazine. “I was a girl that was disenfranchised and homeless and was in sex work, and so many great things have happened in this house… I want people to understand that it’s not where you start, it’s where you go.”
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