Transgender teen girl from Christian family dies by suicide

[Rachel333]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressiv ... s-in-blog/

I've been seeing this story around and it is just horrible. Her suicide note is incredibly sad, as is the post she wrote on reddit a few months ago about her situation. It's hard not to be mad at her parents as this just seems so unnecessary. I wish she could have seen that her future was not as bleak as she thought.

[Jana814]

What a sad story!!

[anjulibai]

Poor thing. :*(

[polecat]

Oh, god, this is heartbreaking.

[browncoatslytherin]

i can't imagine the hell this poor girl went through in her brief life. i hope her parents can understand now, now that they drove her away and into this. i hope they wake up and realize how wrong they were, and i hope they work to stop other parents from doing the same. i also hope they respect her final wishes, to sell and donate to trans support.

[lilah]

My heart goes out to this young woman. I just can't fathom why so called christian parents reject thier children. I wish someone could have gotten through to her and helped her realize she can have a good a fulfilling life even if she transitioned at 18.

[samurai_sarah]

Dear Leelah,

I'm sorry for all you went through. You sound like a clever and strong person, and I'm sorry the world lost someone like you. I'm sorry that the rest of us let you down. You are right. We need to look at that number, and say "that's fucked up".

Sincerely, samurai_sarah

[doggie]

Sadly this is repeated over and over. Faith over children

[Marshmallow World]

And then there is her mother's (public) response: facebook.com/carla.alcorn/posts/10205505216009937?pnref=story

Rest in peace, Leelah. My heart breaks for you. You deserved so much more than you were offered :cry:

[browncoatslytherin]

And then there is her mother's (public) response: facebook.com/carla.alcorn/posts/10205505216009937?pnref=story

Rest in peace, Leelah. My heart breaks for you. You deserved so much more than you were offered :cry:

that was posted on the 28th, likely very shortly after it happened. i can't tell when the scheduled suicide note posted on tumblr. there hasn't been any public posts since the mom's post on the 28th, so i wonder if she's even seen the scheduled post that went out yet, and if she has what her reaction is.

[memabelle]

Leelah's mother should listen to her own words when she told her daughter that God doesn't make mistakes. If God doesn't make mistakes, then Leelah was exactly as He intended...

[Janes Heir]

How unspeakably tragic! Leelah sounds like such a brave, articulate young woman. This makes me realize how important it is to confront the transphobia of those I know, to do whatever I can to end the horror of the war on transgender people.

[Marshmallow World]

that was posted on the 28th, likely very shortly after it happened. i can't tell when the scheduled suicide note posted on tumblr. there hasn't been any public posts since the mom's post on the 28th, so i wonder if she's even seen the scheduled post that went out yet, and if she has what her reaction is.

That is a good point - it's my impression that the note was queued for this morning. I hadn't noticed the dates. I really would like to see her parents' reaction, but I expect it would be more of the same. I would be thrilled if I was incorrect in that matter, though.

[FeministShrew]

I'm the mother of a gay transman. This is heartbreaking to me. When my son came out to me 2 years ago, I told him I trusted him to know who he is. I didn't give birth to a gender, I gave birth to a human being.

His dad & stepmom & the rest of both sides of the family are still calling him by his birth name & referring to him with female pronouns. He's dealing with it ok because he doesn't see them that much & has a good support system of friends. I hate to think how it would be for him if he depended on them for money or lived with them. (His dad is a conservative & pastor of his own fundie-lite church. And also very much in the closet himself.)

I have several transgender & gay friends/family members, & I recently lost a close friend because he wouldn't stop making homophobic & transphobic comments on my FB page. He claims to be a liberal Christian but sees nothing wrong with making fun of the LBGTQ community, and says being gay or transgender is always a choice because god wouldn't make people "that way."

If I hadn't cut contact with him I'd send him this article so he'd see just why I, my son, & our friends find his jokes so offensive & hateful. Hell, I might do it anyway.

I wish I could take in & mother every person whose family has abandoned them because of who they are.

[Walking Cat Bed]

Oh, Leelah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[doggie]

god does not make gays but he makes downs and other birth defected people?. But those people are special and there is a plan. no plan for gays of course. Who the fuck is anyone to say what god would or would not do? people think they are experts on god.

[Buzzard]

On her tumblr she posted this right after the suicide note:

SORRY

And now for my sorry notes to some people I knew…

Amanda: You are going to have such a wonderful life. You are the most talented and pretty little girl I’ve ever met and I love you so much, Amanda. Please don’t be sad. I’m going to miss you so very much. I love you.

Tiffany: We haven’t talked much recently since we’re both so busy but I’m so happy you’re my sister. You are so courageous and determined to achieve what you want, you can accomplish anything. I love you.

Justin: We’ve been jerks to each other a lot recently but I really do love you. You get on my nerves almost all the time but no matter what a part of me will always love you. Sorry for picking on you so much when we were kids.

Rylan: I’m so sorry I’m never there for you. I love you so much.

Abby: Thank you for dealing with my pathetic problems, all I did was make your life harder and I’m sorry.

Mom and Dad: Fuck you. You can’t just control other people like that. That’s messed up.

I don’t really feel the need to apologize to anyone else… odds are you didn’t give a shit about me and if you do, you did something that made me feel like shit and you don’t deserve an apology.

Also, anyone who says something like “I wish I got to know him better†or “I wish I treated him better†gets a punch in the nose.

Underline is mine.

So sad that people would prefer an ideology over a human being.

eta: http://lazerprincess.tumblr.com/

[Anny Nym]

What a cruel death, which could have been easily prevented in this time and age.

When hearing such stories, one really wishes reincarnation to turn out to be a true thing, so Leelah´s spirit would get a second chance to life and to enjoy the happy carefree childhood and adolescence she, as everyone, deserved in the first place.

I can´t open the FB link to her mother´s response. Could anyone of you? What consequences will they have to bear now?

Hopefully her death will not be forgotten as only another sidenote in the media.

[Marshmallow World]

Yeah, the link to Facebook is dead now (or at least made private).

[DGayle]

I sincerely hope those parents wake up every day and hate themselves so deeply that they can't breathe. That's the pain they inflicted on their daughter for years. If it was good enough for their daughter, it's good enough for them.

[Four is Enough]

This is definitely tragic, but I find in it the "over the top"-ness of teen depression. Of course, the right help might have mitigated that feeling that Leelah was the ONLY PERSON EVER to have felt the way she did, and she didn't get it. The right help may have helped the entire family come to terms with the "Leelah-ness" of Leelah, and accepted her AS God made her.. and nobody got it. Another death due to the constrictions of religion.

[browncoatslytherin]

This is definitely tragic, but I find in it the "over the top"-ness of teen depression. Of course, the right help might have mitigated that feeling that Leelah was the ONLY PERSON EVER to have felt the way she did, and she didn't get it. The right help may have helped the entire family come to terms with the "Leelah-ness" of Leelah, and accepted her AS God made her.. and nobody got it. Another death due to the constrictions of religion.

this is why one of my friends wants to start a home/refuge for lgbtq youth. she's always wanted to start a non-profit.

[lawlifelgbt]

This is so sad to me, because I would have taken her in! There's a website, transhousingnetwork.tumblr.com, that helps homeless/kicked out trans people, youth included, find emergency shelter with people who can offer. Anyone can list their place, if they have a room, couch, or even a floor. Seeing that, I listed my place on there last January, and hosted someone for a few days. She had just come out of treatment in the hospital for depression because of very Christian parents. I think my listing's still up. If anyone wants to do something after hearing this news, and has room, it would be something to look into.

[browncoatslytherin]

This is so sad to me, because I would have taken her in! There's a website, transhousingnetwork.tumblr.com, that helps homeless/kicked out trans people, youth included, find emergency shelter with people who can offer. Anyone can list their place, if they have a room, couch, or even a floor. Seeing that, I listed my place on there last January, and hosted someone for a few days. She had just come out of treatment in the hospital for depression because of very Christian parents. I think my listing's still up. If anyone wants to do something after hearing this news, and has room, it would be something to look into.

i'll let my friend know about that as well, she may be interested. it seems like even though there are resources out there, it's hard to get that fact broadcast to the people who need it most.

[Rachel333]

For those who didn't see the mother's facebook note, a bunch of articles still have it and the text was:

My sweet 16-year-old son, Joshua Ryan Alcorn went home to heaven this morning. He was out for an early morning walk and was hit by a truck. Thank you for the messages and kindness and concern you have sent our way. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

This is definitely tragic, but I find in it the "over the top"-ness of teen depression. Of course, the right help might have mitigated that feeling that Leelah was the ONLY PERSON EVER to have felt the way she did, and she didn't get it. The right help may have helped the entire family come to terms with the "Leelah-ness" of Leelah, and accepted her AS God made her.. and nobody got it. Another death due to the constrictions of religion.

I agree because I just wish she could have seen the big picture, that she could have had the life she wanted. She mentioned not being able to pass (something her parents kept telling her), but she looked quite feminine already without ever starting hormones. I know with severe depression though, at any age, that it can be almost impossible to imagine the future at all.

I'm not sure she did feel like she was the only person ever to feel that way, though. From what I've been reading she had been talking online to other young, depressed, transgender girls and she knew how common it was for transgender people to die by suicide. I hadn't thought about this before, but just knowing that transgender people have high suicide rates could influence transgender people to feel like that is something they could do as well.

There are so many factors that go into someone's suicide so I don't like seeing people say that someone caused someone else's suicide, and of course I'm sure Leelah's parents didn't want her to die, but they were definitely an influencing factor here.