Media entrepreneur Ts Madison opens The Ts Madison Starter House, a sanctuary for Black trans women

This past Monday, March 31, marked 16 years of Transgender Day of Visibility. On that day, the media entrepreneur, actress, and writer Ts Madison–of The Ts Madison Experience, Zola, Bros, and RuPaul’s Drag Race–officially opened The Ts Madison Starter House, a sanctuary in Atlanta, Georgia for formerly incarcerated Black trans women.

The house, which first became known as the “Marvelous Chateau” when Ts Madison herself resided there, will become the home of five residents at a time. Residents will be referred to as “stakeholders,” according to Forbes, “to best signify their crucial role in their own success and that of the broader Black queer and trans liberation movement, while striving towards their greatest aspirations.” The Ts Madison Starter House is a collaboration with NAESM, Inc.--a nonprofit organization which has been dedicated to ensuring Black LGBTQ+ lives share “legal, civic, social, health and wellness equity with all other communities” for 35 years–and the SAFE (Sisterhood Alliance for Freedom and Equality) Housing Network, “a national collective of formerly incarcerated people working to decarcerate the US by bringing people home to stay, helping them to heal from the trauma of incarceration, and empowering them to lead in the fight to end mass incarceration.”

Ts Madison herself faced the trials of homelessness, disenfranchisement, and survival sex work. She has discussed in many interviews that not only would places not hire her because she was trans, there were many people, including members of the queer and transgender community, who then looked down on her for doing sex work to make money. “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,” she told Gaye Magazine, as recounted by Them.

“The TS Madison Starter House is more than a shelter,” as NAESM, Inc., shares. “It is a transformative investment in the future of Black Trans women.” This will include not just housing and security, but “mental health support, primary care, gender-affirming care, case management, and financial literacy” as well as leadership development, “building skills in advocacy, workforce development, and entrepreneurship.” As activist Dominique Morgan, who was also an essential partner in developing the house, told Gaye Magazine, "[The Ts Madison Starter House is] for people who are focused, people who are ready to build a future, and people who can look at Madison’s journey as a possibility model. But also people who are excited to have a community around them that is really invested in them being successful.”

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A house like the Ts Madison Starter House, which advocates instead of abandons, cultivates instead of dismisses, has the potential to transform the lives of those who live there and break cycles of systemic injustice. Atlanta publication The Atlanta Voiceoffers statistics from the National Black Women’s Justice Institute, which state that “Black transgender women are incarcerated at10 times the rate of the general American population,” and “Nearly 1 in 2 (47%) Black transgender and gender-expansive people have been incarcerated.”

Morgan sees The Ts Madison Starter House as rife with the possibility of new beginnings, and one that’s designed by and for Black trans women specifically. “For many people, this is a radical project,” Morgan told Gaye Magazine. “Us being successful launching this will position us to replicate this model, will position us to be able to look at people and say, when we say trust Black women, when we say trust Black trans women, we’ve demonstrated that when you let us do our thing, when you get out of our way, we will bring back wins, let us do it again.”

The Ts Madison Starter House has a fundraising initiative underway, and you can donate here.