Real Talk with Trans Trailblazer Ts Madison
All T, some shade, and a little pink lemonade, Ts Madison is going to be real with you no matter what the topic is.
Known as one of the biggest names on social media, Madison built a name and platform for herself by living her authentic truth and being unapologetically trans. The trailblazer rose to fame in 2013 after going viral following the release of a Vine clip titled “New Weave 22 Inches,” where she challenged norms by showing her nude body. During that time, Madison was starring in adult films and running a successful production company. On the LGBTQ&A podcast, she said she started doing sex work after being fired from multiple jobs for being trans.
After becoming an overnight sensation, Madison pursued a career in the entertainment industry and continued to break barriers. As an activist tackling stigma through storytelling, she uses her celebrity status to advocate for both the trans community and LGBTQ rights. Last year, Madison made history as the first transgender person to have their own reality show, The Ts Madison Experience on WEtv.
Recently, the icon launched a brand-new talk show called Turnt Out with Ts Madison, which debuted January 11 on Fox Soul, the Black community’s premiere free streaming platform. Inspired by Saturday Night Live and In Living Color, this one-hour show includes pop culture talk, comedic sketches, celebrity interviews, and live performances that will not only make viewers laugh but expose them to discussions on social issues impacting the community, including the Black church, transgender equality, and plus-size women’s fashion tips.
OFM caught up with Madison to talk more about the show, as well as upcoming projects, how she continues to battle discrimination in Hollywood, and what kind of legacy she hopes to leave.
I would like to begin by talking about your new show Turnt Out with Ts Madison, airing on Fox Soul. For those who have not yet checked it out, what can we expect?
My show, Turnt Out with Ts Madison on Fox Soul, is a comedy-variety-talk show. Let me start off by saying that I love Claudia Jordan because she fought so hard for me to get a show because she believed so heavily in me and the vision that I have. I’ve enjoyed doing my show because it has given me an opportunity to really explore my talk show host qualities. I am rooted in talk and have been on the internet forever, so I know how to chop it up with folks. I know how to get all up in your business (laughs).
What I loved about Turnt Out with Ts Madison is that it is me. You can feel all throughout the show that it is me. I’m trying to bridge the gap between LGBTQ people and cis people, cis Black females, and Black trans women because there’s a divide, and the biggest takeaway that I want people to take away from the show is that we’re all human. We’re having a human experience.
How has the audience response been so far?
We’re number three over there on Fox Soul, only second to Cocktails with Queens and Tea-G-I-F, which is live streamed. If we were streaming live, we would really be battling, but I personally think that the talk show is doing very well. We’ve had some great numbers, and my audience is loyal and dedicated to me. They’ve been a real support to Fox Soul, and I really appreciate Fox Soul because it’s a growing network. I’m able to go in there and be a part of something that’s growing and be a staple. People come to that network to watch the show. I’m so excited.
How many episodes are in this first season?
The first season has six episodes. We opened with Cherry Thee Boom—she’s a social media influencer—and we closed out the season with Mo’Nique. Let me tell you, that episode was so important to me because the last time Mo’Nique and I shared a space with each other, it was disastrous. At that time, I was hosting my own YouTube show and Facebook streaming show called The Queen’s Court with rapper Khia.
She and I had a very nasty, brutal split that really shook the culture when we did it. That was the Mo’Nique episode, so it’s kind of a full circle moment. Even more, we did that episode on February 5, 2018. The Turnt Out with Ts Madison episode with Mo’Nique was filmed February 5, 2022.
Wow, you really did come full circle.
So full circle that it blew me away! Mo’Nique was like, wow, four years to date!
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What makes Turnt Out with Ts Madison different and stand out from other variety talk shows?
It’s hosted by a Black, transgender woman, honey. That’s the difference right there! How many talk shows can you think of that are hosted by Black, transgender women, who are in control of the narrative and is on a streaming like Fox Soul, which is open for all people but is definitely rooted in people of color? That’s unheard of, and it’s such an amazing thing.
I have an audience of people that spans from cis and trans to Black, white, and multicultural. I have a large fanbase that supports me, and this bridges the gap with everybody that will come to Fox Soul to watch this show. So, that’s difference number one. Number two, no bitch brings it like Ts brings it, honey!
Are there any long-term goals you would like the show to achieve?
Yes. I would love for the show to be a staple at Fox Soul. There are so many people in our community, from LGBTQ to Black, that want to have a space where they can come and tell their story and have strangers watch it and be enthralled by it. I want the show to be geared towards non-celebrity and celebrity alike. I just want people to come there and have a full human experience. No matter your stature, no matter your color, no matter your class, Turnt Out with Ts Madison is the place to go when you’ve got a new book, when you’ve got a new song, and when there’s something going on in your life that you need to share. I want that to be the staple, like how The Breakfast Club is.
Last year, you became the first Black, trans woman to star in and executive produce your own reality series with The Ts Madison Experience. How meaningful and significant is that for you?
After seeing what it did for my career, there were things that I was talking about on the show and those dreams manifested and came into fruition, I know it was God’s will. It’s so important that this show happened because I broke down so many barriers for people who have stigmas against former sex workers, Black, trans women, or any disenfranchised set of people.
Saying that we can’t make it, or we don’t have the ability only makes us want to do it even more. The show also opened the doors for people who are trying to escape sex work or survival sex. Go out there in the world, apply yourself, and you can be a television producer too. You can do whatever you want to do, and this show displayed a beacon of hope for people.
Will we see a second season of The Ts Madison Experience?
I don’t know yet. I am going to L.A. in the first part of March for a meeting with some very important people, then I have a meeting with World of Wonder, who produces the show with me. I love World of Wonder, and I have been talking with Randy, Fenton, and Tom Campbell, and they all have high hopes for The Ts Madison Experience, but I’ve grown so much in the time since it began. I think it needs a new name and a new journey. There’s a new experience going on.
You rose to fame by going viral following a Vine clip called “New Weave 22 Inches,” in which you are nude. Did you ever expect that would lead you to where you are today?
Honest to God, I really didn’t. I always knew that I was going to be a star because I felt it was written in the cards, but I still haven’t risen to the place where I feel significant. I’m still a girl trying to get it, but society says otherwise. I tiptoe out, and people are like, ‘Ts, Ts, Ts!’ Like, shit. I can’t rob a bank; somebody will turn me in (laughs). My days of being discreet are gone.
The price of becoming famous! With that viral video, is it true that you did not initially receive much love and support from the queer community for putting your body on display?
I didn’t, and that’s because we were most definitely in a space where people were still demonizing and shaming sex work. Because we were still occupying that space, people didn’t even see a trajectory. It was all, trans women and sex work; you’re furthering the thought of trans women being objectified by men, and you’re not a part of the solution. You are the problem. What I love now is that I’ve moved into a space where I proved all of them wrong. It was a part of my story and journey to get to the next space.
Even though things have gotten better in the entertainment industry, there is still a lot of homophobia and queerphobia. How are you battling that?
Honestly, it’s through gateways like my talk show, especially when the show is doing well. People are watching, but they also understand that I’m bridging a gap between the cis community and the LGBTQ community. I think we’ve progressed a lot, but there is still so much that we have to do. In the workings, we must show up for each other, we must include each other, and I do mean that for all marginalized people. There’s no reason why I should be the only one. There’s no reason why there should be only two over there. We need to run this thing equally, so people know that they don’t have the power like they had before to keep us out. We in this thing, honey.
I love seeing you as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Is it true that RuPaul fought for you to be on the show?
Yes, RuPaul did. It wasn’t the fact that he fought so hard for me to be on the show, but there was something more. I was on the Gay for Play show, and maybe I shouldn’t share this, but I will. There was someone that was like ‘Ts, at first we didn’t want you here, but you’re doing great! We love that you’re here!’ This was right before commercial break, and I was like, “Um, OK?” I just had to continue with the show because the old Ts would have cussed his motherfucking ass out. My clapbacks can be vicious; I don’t play like that.
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However, I had to absorb that and say, “Ts, you can’t take it personally because you weren’t received well at first. You have something to prove, and not just to yourself, but you have to prove to these people that you are more than what they thought you were. Absorb that,” and like Latrice says, “Honey, make them eat it!”
Well, you are certainly proving your worth, and we will be seeing you in Billy Eichner’s upcoming rom-com, Bros. What are you enjoying the most about being a part of that production?
I am enjoying being principal cast, but I’m also enjoying that this is a fun movie. It’s a Judd Apatow film written by Billy Eichner and Nicholas Stoller, and it’s also the first of its kind. Miss Lawrence and I are in it, Symone, Harvey Fierstein, so many great people, and it means so much because representation matters. We can’t say it enough.
It is so important as a youth growing up to look out at something and really see yourself because you can go to school and live at home without seeing yourself, but you can by turning on the television, going to the movie theater, or turning on the radio. If you’re LGBTQ, trans, living your authentic truth not only frees you, but also someone else. I do feel like this movie is going to do that for so many queer people.
Do you have any music projects in the works?
I want to get back to music. I’ve linked up with the person that has studio time, and we’ve been spending a lot of time together working on music. So, I’m going to get back to it, but let me tell you, it’s going to be dirty. I won’t lie. It will be dirty, but funny. I’m very much rooted into vulgar, Mille Jackson type stuff. I’m into that because it feels good, and it feels at home for me. I don’t shy away from being vulgar. That’s my love language to the people.
What more do you hope to accomplish with your platform?
You know, someone asked me this on Turnt Out with Ts Madison. They said, ‘Ts, how does it feel being someone that the generation or two after you will be looking up saying, ‘I found myself looking at her?’” I had to pause a moment, and I came to tears. They were like, “For you, it was RuPaul, but for us, it’s you.” I was like, yo. I’m so busy trying to achieve and move to the next level, I need to take moments and bask that in. I am a part of the change that’s going on in the world, and I never thought of it that way.
One day, queer people around the world will use me as a reference or use the things that I’ve done as a muse, and it does not hit you until you really sit and think about it. All I’m really doing is following my dream and telling people on the way, if I can do it, you can do it. Encouraging people to follow their dreams, but never thinking that I’m putting footprints in the ground.
You don’t realize the impact you are making on millions of people.
No, because I still feel small in the world. Then, when people say stuff like that, I like freeze. One day I’m going to die, and someone’s going to write a story about me, so let me make what they write meaningful. So, that’s what I plan to do with my platform moving forward: make sure that everything I do means something to someone that I give back to.
Stay up-to-date and connect with Madison by following her on Facebook and Twitter @tsmadison, Instagram @therealtsmadison, and YouTube @tsmadisonhinton. Visit Fox Soul to watch episodes of Turnt Out with Ts Madison and to catch up on the latest news.
Photos courtesy of Nathan Pearcy and Social Media
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