Ts Madison’s metro Atlanta ‘sanctuary’ for Black trans women is in bloom
Inside a lavish, 4,000-square-foot home nestled in a secluded area in Conyers, Ts Madison’s multilayered legacy is boldly apparent.
Pictures of Madison on the Emmys red carpet (for her work as a judge on “RuPaul’s Drag Race”) and a poster for WE TV’s “The Ts Madison Experience” (the 2021 series that made Madison the first Black trans woman to star in and executive produce her own reality show) adorn the walls of an office.
The dining room features a graffitilike image of Madison with her popular phrase, “I’m dark brown, dark skin, light skin, beige, fluorescent beige. B----, I’m Black.” Beyoncé sampled the words on “Cozy,” a track from her Grammy-winning album “Renaissance.”
On the living room mantel sits another poster, one signifying her current work: the Ts Madison Starter House. The space, which officially launched in March, is a reentry home for formerly incarcerated Black trans women or those previously engaged in sex work. Now, the house — which bills itself as “a sanctuary for Black Trans Women in ATL” — is hosting its first resident.
“I didn’t even see myself as an activist or an advocate because I was just moving around,” said Madison, 48, who recently bought a new home in Atlanta. “But in moving around, you don’t know how many lives that you’re changing just being authentic to who you are.”
A safe haven
Last year, Madison announced plans for the Starter House program, along with her business partner Dominique Morgan and National AIDS Education & Services for Minorities Inc. — an Atlanta-based nonprofit that specializes in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.
Along with housing, Madison’s program also offers wraparound services like STI testing. It’s an essential mission that reflects Madison’s life story. The Miami-born actress, media personality and former sex worker was unhoused when she moved to Atlanta over two decades ago.
In 2007, she bought the house that now serves as the starter home after “making my first million dollars” said Madison, who has acting credits in Tyler Perry’s Netflix show “Beauty in Black” and the 2020 film “Zola.” She resided there for 17 years.
“What is the pressing issue that I can be a part of, that I can lend my superstar to, for my community?” Madison pondered when conceiving of the idea to repurpose her home.
Housing instability is an issue among the LGBTQ community, with 41% of Black trans people in the country having experienced homelessness (more than five times the rate of the general U.S. population), per a 2018 report by the Human Rights Campaign.
Since its inception, the Ts Madison Starter Home has raised over $250,000 through corporate and individual donors. In October, Atlanta City Councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari declared Oct. 22, Madison’s birthday, as Ts Madison Day.
“(The Ts Madison Starter House) owns what trans women have to go through, what formerly incarcerated people have to go through, and says, we know that these are the challenges,” Bakhtiari, who’s nonbinary, said about Madison’s cachet. “This is what we still have to depend on to survive, and that’s just the reality. We do not want to be punished for it. Instead, we will own it. We will create a safe space for it.”
Next year, the fledgling initiative is focused on securing more funds, primarily from individual donations, so that regardless of the “political landscape, Black trans women will be housed,” Morgan said.
Morgan helps amplify the home’s mission amid Madison’s busy work schedule. Last year, Morgan, a 43-year-old Atlanta resident, was indicted by a New York district attorney for allegedly stealing nearly $100,000 from the Okra Project, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit providing mutual aid to Black trans people.
Morgan, who served as the organization’s executive director before moving to Atlanta, pleaded not guilty. The case is still ongoing.
In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Morgan said the case doesn’t impact her commitment to the Starter House, adding that the “works speaks for itself.”
“Over the last 14 months, I have raised nearly $200,000, built real infrastructure and delivered on a promise to my community — all while navigating extraordinary personal and public pressure,” she said. “That is not symbolic. It is material, measurable and ongoing.”
A new start
Eventually, up to five women at a time will live at the Ts Madison Starter House, although only one person currently lives there. The general length of stay is six months, but the program’s priority is offering trans women stability and safety, more than being concerned about how many women they can admit or how long they can stay.
“As long as you’re locked in, this is a family,” Morgan said. “This is an ecosystem.”
There isn’t a rigid application process for entering the home. Prospective residents reach out to Madison and Morgan via social media and are later vetted. The primary objective? “Finding people who are focused on their personal goals but understand that they are a part of something greater,” Morgan said.
Zamyah Esters met those requirements. The 30-year-old Orlando, Florida, native served a nine-year prison sentence back home for theft charges. She was released in 2023.
Upon her return, Esters was unhoused and struggled to find resources for hormone replacement therapy (she started transitioning while in prison).
“I ended up meeting some girls, and they put me on some black market hormones,” Esters said. “From that, I suffered a minor heart attack. I was in the hospital for five days, so it was so hard for me — from being in prison from so young and for so long — to come home and try to navigate all these changes.”
Earlier this year, she reached out to Morgan, having been an admirer of her advocacy work. That’s when she was informed about the Ts Madison Starter House, citing it as an opportunity that would be a “relief.”
Later introduced to Madison, Esters spoke at the Starter House’s launch ceremony in March. Shortly after, she was told she’d be the first resident.
“I did not know what support looked like within the trans community,” Esters said. “So I had to go out and find it. You have to be dedicated in looking for it.”
Since being accepted into the home, Esters has received her GED certificate and taken her first plane ride. She’s in the process of changing her legal name, which requires her to travel between Florida and Georgia. Esters hopes to live full time in the Starter House by the new year.
She also has plans to pursue an undergraduate degree in psychology. Her drive for “helping people” began in prison, when she became a source of emotional reinforcement to her fellow inmates.
“I love when people vent to me, because I feel like a lot of us don’t have safe spaces to be able to voice how we feel. I was always taught in prison you could not show any emotion, so I was trained to hide it. It made me have so much built-up anger, built-up sadness, built-up depression, built-up anxiety.”
She hopes to work in nonprofit management.
Another goal of the Ts Madison Starter House? Documenting the experience. Madison plans to self-fund a reality series showcasing Esters’ journey in the home.
For the social media maven, it’s all about “giving the girls a digital footprint that helped me in my rise,” Madison shared.
At the Starter House, Esters feels closer to achieving her dreams.
“I feel so much more like I can actually thrive and survive out here. … I went from being in a cell that’s probably smaller than your walk-in closet — in solitary confinement for 18 months for a 24-hour period — to me being in the sky (on my first flight) overlooking so much of the world,” Esters said. “Literally, the sky’s the limit.”
Donations may be made to the Ts Madison Starter House.
About the Author
DeAsia is a music and culture reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She focuses on the intersection of arts, culture and diverse communities, as well as how emerging social trends are being expressed through the lens of the Atlanta aesthetic. DeAsia's work can be seen in Pitchfork, Essence, Teen Vogue, Elle and more.
