12-year-old girl forced to leave town because she’s transgender

The transgender 12-year-old girl in Oklahoma who was the target of violent comments from adults in her town is now speaking out against the hate, while her family gets ready to leave the town.

via LGBTQ Nation

Her trouble in the small town has been brewing for several years. Maddison Kleeman Rose’s family moved to Achille, Oklahoma, several years ago, and she presented as a girl.

In fifth grade, a teacher outed her after looking up Maddie’s old school records, and then the whole town knew.

School administrators called in her parents and told them that their daughter would have to use the staff bathroom.

But people in the town talked and the issue went beyond bathrooms. Maddie had a confrontation with Burney Crenshaw, a adult man, when she attended a father/daughter dance with her stepdad, Cory Rose, this past April.

Crenshaw asked her repeatedly if she was a boy, and she kept on saying that she was a girl, until her father intervened. This upset the Roses.

“My personal opinion is when you’re asking somebody if you’re a boy or a girl, you’re asking what their genitalia is,” Rose said. “My daughter’s genitalia? None of your business.”

Despite her brave front, the family is too scared to stay in Achille. Even during the interview, someone in a truck slowed down in front of their house and the police warned Vice about doing an interview in their town.

“This is why we’re moving,” Brandy Rose said.

After the threats, the family started a GoFundMe page to move away from the town where they no longer feel safe. They have raised almost $54,000 so far and Rose wrote that they have found a new home in Houston.

Watch a preview of Maddie’s interview with Vice News Tonight on HBO: