A Philadelphia man died by suicide after he was bullied for dating a trans woman.
The 20-year-old cis man, Maurice Willoughby aka “Reese Him Daddie,” was mercilessly bullied for his relationship with his trans girlfriend, Faith. A video of the bullying went viral online, and he fell into a deep depression, Advocate reports. After he reportedly threatened to kill Faith as well as himself, Faith left him. He then overdosed.
Friends say the harassment played a direct role in Willoughby’s death.
“Where we are from, if you like trans woman, and you black, the streets will talk about you, fight you, even try to kill you. He was dealing with a lot,” one friend told Aazios.
After news of the death broke, journalist and activist Ashlee Marie Preston shared a video on Twitter that shows a group of men cruelly confronting Willoughby about Faith’s gender.
“You f*ck what? Bro, you do what?” one man asks.
“F*ck trannies. So what?” Willoughby responds.
The men taunt him: “He suck dick!” “You sucking dick and all that? That’s not a girl.”
As Preston wrote alongside the video: “When a man is confident and secure enough to openly love a trans woman, this is the bullying and harassment he gets.”
Willoughby was so open about his love for Faith that he even tattooed her name across his forehead. Before his suicide, he proudly defended his relationship in a Facebook post.
“Y’all can say whatever about faith I really don’t care if she not passable I don’t care if she wasn’t born a woman she is a woman to me & I love her flaws that’s what makes her faith if you heard her story it’s motivating….. I’m happy you should be happy for me,” Willoughby wrote.
Willoughby’s death has led to an outpouring of support from the entire LGBTQ community, including trans activists like Laverne Cox, Janet Mock and Indya Moore.
Rest in Peace, Reese.
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