A Philadelphia man was found allegedly dead by suicide on Aug. 18, after a video showing him being bullied while defending his relationship with a trans woman was widely circulated online earlier this year.
The clip shows a group of people surrounding Maurice “Reese” Willoughby, 20, and berating him about dating his girlfriend, Faith Palmer.
In the days following Willoughby’s death, the hashtag #RIPReese went viral. People across the country, including public figures like presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, trans actress Laverne Cox and trans woman Miss Peppermint, who appeared in RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9, chimed in on a conversation on the barriers to openly dating LGBTQ-plus people.
“Reece was someone who had the audacity to publicly love a trans woman,” Miss Peppermint wrote on Instagram. “After enduring torment and ridicule yesterday he died by Suicide, look up the transgender people in your lives and lift up the PARTNERS AND LOVES of transgender people. In some cases, it’s life and death [sic].”
O’Rourke’s tweet reads: “No one should lose their life because of who they are or who they love.”
Palmer did not respond to PGN’s request for comment, but her Facebook describes a much more precarious relationship situation, fraught with abuse and drug use. Willoughby’s Facebook also details drug usage.
Palmer wrote she thought he was going “to take both of us” because “he said that’s how much he loved me, but I knew it was the pills talkin’ not him.” She then referenced Willoughby’s forehead tattoo that read “Faith.”
The Marsha P. Johnson Institute published a statement on Facebook Aug. 21 naming Palmer as a survivor of abuse and stating the incident should not be primarily viewed as “an instance of a cisgender man bullied to take his own life.”
“Reese’s suicide is not the time to discuss cis men who date trans women,” the post states. “Faith went on Instagram Live to clarify that Reese’s suicide occurred through an overdose after she left him. A heavy drug user, Reese threatened to take his life and Faith’s. She ran away to safety, and it was then that he committed suicide.”
Palmer also describes Willoughby as a musician who aimed to use the craft to tell his story. Of his death, she said, “It’s deeper [than] him being bullied.”
Philadelphia police told PGN, “No information [is available] at this time” regarding Willoughby’s death. A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, which oversees the Medical Examiner’s Office, said “Willoughby’s cause of death is still pending investigation at this time.”