Despite some major strides in the last decade, it’s fair to say that we still have a long way to go before the trans community is fully integrated into human society and this is emphasised even more when you hear the sad story of 20 year old Maurice Willoughby.

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Willoughby – who went by the name Reese – admitted in a Facebook Live video that was viewed 15,000 times that he was dating a transgender woman. Whilst this was no doubt a courageous and beautiful move on his part, a lot of other people didn’t see it that way and he was relentlessly bullied following the video, with the clip you can see below of some guys pushing him around in the street because of it going viral:

Wow!! I wish I could find a brave man like Reese who openly date trans women!! This is exactly why men that are attracted to trans women or even queer males stay in the closet!! It’s 2019 we have to do better!!! pic.twitter.com/cv0tfb07LS

— KREN$HAW BABY 💕 (@karrkrenshaw) August 21, 2019

Damn that really sucks and like that woman says we really have to do better. It was clear that Reese really loved his girlfriend Faith as he even went and got her name tattooed on his forehead, but unfortunately for him, in the area of Philadelphia he is from being black and openly loving a transgender woman means that you’re going to get a lot of shit about it.

This basically meant that he was relentlessly ridiculed whenever he went out on the streets or did anything, with some people even threatening to kill him and beat him up. Reese sadly only saw one option after enduring this awful bullying and left the following message on his Facebook account before taking his life:

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I mean yeah we should have been, but unfortunately the world isn’t like that just yet. RIP Reese – it completely sucks that he was forced to take his own life because people still understand and respect transgender people. Hopefully his death will cause some of these people to see how wrong they are about these kinds of thing – we can’t keep letting this happen.

Too sad to even write about sometimes – thoughts and prayers with Reese, Faith and their families. RIP.

For more of the same, check out this story about a transgender woman who found love with the man who rejected her when she was male. At least there’s some hope out there.