A 17-year-old transgender girl from
Kings Mills, Ohio committed suicide in the early hours of Sunday by
walking in front of a tractor trailer on highway I-71.
Leelah Alcorn scheduled a heartbreaking
Tumblr post in which she blamed her Christian parents for her death.
“Please don't be sad, it's for the
better,” Leelah
wrote. “The life I would've lived isn't worth living in …
because I'm transgender.”
Leelah said that she knew she was
transgender since the age of 4.
“When I was 14, I learned what
transgender meant and cried of happiness. After 10 years of
confusion I finally understood who I was. I immediately told my mom,
and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase,
that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn’t make mistakes,
that I am wrong. If you are reading this, parents, please don’t
tell this to your kids. Even if you are Christian or are against
transgender people don’t ever say that to someone, especially your
kid. That won’t do anything but make them hate them self. That’s
exactly what it did to me.”
“My mom started taking me to a
therapist, but would only take me to christian therapists, (who were
all very biased) so I never actually got the therapy I needed to cure
me of my depression. I only got more Christians telling me that I
was selfish and wrong and that I should look to God for help.”
Leelah said that her parents had
isolated her from her friends.
“I’m never going to transition
successfully, even when I move out. I’m never going to be happy
with the way I look or sound. I’m never going to have enough
friends to satisfy me. I’m never going to have enough love to
satisfy me. I’m never going to find a man who loves me. I’m
never going to be happy. Either I live the rest of my life as a
lonely man who wishes he were a woman or I live my life as a lonelier
woman who hates herself. There’s no winning. There’s no way
out. I’m sad enough already, I don’t need my life to get any
worse. People say 'it gets better' but that isn’t true in my case.
It gets worse. Each day I get worse.”
“That’s the gist of it, that’s
why I feel like killing myself. Sorry if that’s not a good enough
reason for you, it’s good enough for me. As for my will, I want
100% of the things that I legally own to be sold and the money (plus
my money in the bank) to be given to trans civil rights movements and
support groups, I don’t give a shit which one . The only way I will
rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the
way I was, they’re treated like humans, with valid feelings and
human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the
earlier the better. My death needs to mean something. My death needs
to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide
this year. I want someone to look at that number and say 'that’s
fucked up' and fix it. Fix society. Please,” she concluded.
According to the Daily
Mail, Leelah's mother Carla Wood Alcorn referred to Leelah as
her “son” in a Facebook tribute.
Leelah's death provoked a conversation
on Twitter. Using the hashtag #RealLiveTransAdult, users encouraged
other teens to hang in there.
“I'm 24, I'm an engineer at Google,
and my life is filled with wonderful and supportive friends. I'm a
#RealLiveTransAdult,” wrote @nex3.
“I work as a commercial field
archaeologist and I have a Phd from Cambridge. I also play
guitar+sing in a band #RealLiveTransAdult,” messaged
@Neandertalnerd.
A
Facebook group calling for passage of Leelah's Law, which would
prohibit therapies aimed at altering the gender identity of
transgender teens, has attracted more than 25,000 likes.
LGBT teens considering suicide are
encouraged to visit The
Trevor Project.