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Transgender bus driver jumped in front of train after bulling at work
Ava Michal Hudson, 27, died on August 7 last year on her way to work at the Chicago Transit Authority, just four days after attending her brother's wedding.
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A transgender bus driver took her own life by jumping in front of a train after colleagues kept referring to her as male.
Ava Michal Hudson, 27, died on August 7 last year on her way to work at the Chicago Transit Authority, while in her uniform.
She didn't leave a note and gave no indication she was suicidal before suddenly leaping to her death, just four days after attending her brother's wedding.
'Sadly, we’ll never fully know the reason for her death, but the pain left behind after her sudden departure has been acute,' her family wrote in her obituary.
'She has already been mourned by many, many friends and relatives across the globe. She will be very much missed and never forgotten.'
Hudson got her bus license just seven months earlier, last January, and passed probation weeks before her death, proudly announcing it in her final Facebook post.
The new job was a turning point for Hudson after several years of struggling with her gender and unemployment after graduating from Wheaton College in 2020.
Transition costs were expensive, running to $875 a month according to a 2022 court petition to legally change her name, plus more for counseling.
Her $61,000 bus driver salary finally allowed for expensive procedures and gave her financial independence for the first time.
'The day she got her CDL driver’s permit in November 2023 was one of the happiest days of her later life and things finally started to take a turn for the better,' her obituary read.
'She often called or texted photos to her family during breaks on her bus routes.'
But the job never quite fit - both literally, with a boxy uniform that led to passengers innocently calling her 'sir', and her isolation in the role.
Several times, first in March 2024, she was reprimanded for failing to adhere to strict sick day policies - and in both reports supervisors referred to her as a man.
Another report on non-paying customers on her route used 'he' and 'him' pronouns to refer to Hudson.
Hudson appeared to face the various infractions alone, with no record of a union representative on the paperwork, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
She never once made a written complaint, unlike at least two other transgender CTA employees.
A bus driver sued in 2022 claiming he was wrongfully terminated after asking to undergo gender-affirming care on CTA health insurance. He lost the case but is appealing.
Then an apprentice filed an internal complaint in 2023 after she was told to stop using the women's bathroom.
Though these cases exist and CTA has gender identity in its anti-discrimination policy, Hudson's family and friends said she didn't know any other transgender workers at the company, which she found isolating.
Her family point to a traumatic brain injury cause by a fall during gymnastics in her sophomore year of high school as the start of her struggles.
David, as she was known before her transition, appeared to bounce back but 'his cognitive abilities would later become compromised as he got older'.
She excelled in her last year of high school, finishing in the top five per cent, but began to struggle at Wheaton College.
'During his time there, symptoms from his brain injury increasingly affected his mental abilities, leading to difficulty in his studies and bouts of depression and anxiety,' the obituary explained.
Hudson moved to Chicago in 2021, then enduring 'many difficult years and lots of questioning who he/she was and would become'.
'Life was never easy and she was often searching for her identity and who she wanted to become,' the obituary read.
'She was able to make some special friends though who supported her and provided a peaceful home for her to live in when she needed it most, something her parents are eternally grateful for.'
But Hudson seemed to be in a good place when she came back to Wheaton for her brother Tim's wedding, and family told her how proud they were that she had gotten her life together.
She stayed a few days then left early on the morning of August 7, worried about being late to work.
They never saw her alive again.
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