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As Wintreath happens to be a decent-sized LGBTQ community, I think it's important that we bring up and happenings in our community, and as we all know there are all-too often tragic happenings within our community. It seems to be a broken record, but...I believe we should remember those that ended their battle for acceptance while we strive for a better life, especially for those that are still minors and aren't always able to improve their own lives.

Leelah Alcorn was a transgendered girl...someone who had always felt that she was a girl, and was happy to discover that transgender was a thing at 14...only for it to go downhill from there. Far from being accepting, her parents were appalled due to...what else...religion. Her mom started taking her to Christian therapists, and when she came out as gay at school, her parents withdrew her and more or less put her in isolation rather than let it tarnish their Christian image. She was further upset that she wouldn't be able to begin her physical transition until 18 due to her parents' opposition...she felt that starting after she had already matured would make her less of a woman.

So after posting a note on tumblr, she committed suicide by walking into interstate traffic, being ran over be a semi. In her note, she said that she wanted her death to mean something, to be counted in the (already estimated to be high) figure of transgender people who commit suicide. Her last words were "Fix society. Please."

To add insult to injury, her mother posted the following "tribute" to Facebook:

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.

The family has since requested privacy. Heh.

There's already a youth rights topic on this forum, and overall I've sided with the way things are, but when I read things like this...there have to be changes. There are laws covering minor's physical well-being, but what of their emotional well-being? Isolation of the sort she talks about in the note is something that we as a society reserve for our most troublesome criminals. Had it been at the hands of the US military against a prisoner, people would have called it torture. And yet this was allowed to go on against someone who by all accounts was a wonderful girl just because of her parent's religion...all done in the name of God, as so many unjust actions are.

Usually when one of our youth commit suicide, their parents at least express regret that they weren't supportive enough...even if by all accounts they had already been very supportive and the issue was elsewhere, but in this case...even now...they obviously want to pretend the whole thing never happened. I'm not sure if this was done because of denial or because they still want to preserve their image as good Christian folk, but I find that to be so disgusting. Even if they can't accept who she was, they could still accept that their actions led to this tragedy and regret that they happened.

When I read these stories I feel like we should be doing more as well...we should be finding ways to reach out to these people and give them a place where they feel accepted and loved. In a small way, I feel like this is such a place where people can find love and acceptance and support...I just wish we could reach out to more. At least give them a place to be themselves...when I read these stories I feel like I should be doing more, though I don't know what...

The school she went to is misgendering her on its homepage (they recently took it down as well as their Twitter account after receiving backlash). Her parents (the reason she cited for her untimely demise) are misgendering her, in addition to all the shit they gave her for every aspect of becoming who she was. She was unable to be comfortable in her own skin as a woman, an issue many transgendered people face. Her mother posted on FB about how her "son will be missed". They're planning on putting her former name, her former identity on her tombstone, not who she was. They're planning on a suit, on making her out to be a boy.

The Christian community these parents were so deeply associated with distanced themselves entirely from the issue, stating that the parents were acting in a manner that was un-Christian-like. No. Being unaccepting of body dysmorphia, of LGBTQ+ people, of lifestyles that are not heterosexual white couples watching Netflix and eating kale chips together, is a huge problem in the Christian community, and, by separating themselves from this, they are only feeding the hatred for this religion.

Trans people deserve respect, same as cis people. That cannot be stressed enough.

Currently, there is a petition to have her name (Leelah, not all this Joshua nonsense) put on her tombstone. At my last checking, it has over 15k signatures. Be a dear and sign.

It has over 29k signatures now! I'm just not sure how much a petition of strangers is going to do here...with parents that are that deeply in denial even after everything that's happened...I dunno. I don't understand how parents can do that to their own children to begin with, much less after all this...

Some people don't deserve children. It is truly sad that this young soul took her own life because she didn't receive the love and acceptance she desired.

I don't mean to be insensitive in any way... I really don't... But how did this particular suicide go viral. I mean to say that there are a lot of suicides every day... Like a lot a lot. And a lot leave notes on social media and a fair amount mention similar issues... Does anyone know how this particular and specific one went viral?

I don't know specifically, but I would imagine it was the combination of the public suicide note and the reaction of her parents. From what I've read, most of the outrage is about how her parents have reacted with still using her male name and stuff.

I don't mean to be insensitive in any way... I really don't... But how did this particular suicide go viral. I mean to say that there are a lot of suicides every day... Like a lot a lot. And a lot leave notes on social media and a fair amount mention similar issues... Does anyone know how this particular and specific one went viral?

She had many followers on Tumblr (a system in which "followers" means that number of people see what you post daily). When she posted her suicide note, she noted that she wanted to say "fuck you" to her parents for forcing her into such a situation in which she saw suicide as the only way out. I do believe she had well over 5k followers, so it stands to reason that this would be broadcasted around the site. And Tumblr has a way of--once things are broadcasted on it--leaking out into other forms of media. Her parents wanted to keep certain things under wraps, but, the news undeniably came to the attention that a woman walked out in front of a moving vehicle, no matter how many times her mother wants to say that it wasn't intentional.

So. Local news paired with Tumblr. Add in the fact that Leelah's parents didn't accept her for who she was, denied her identity, and boom, I suppose.

Aha! I didn't know she had 5K followers upon the release of her note... I had assumed that it had not been many. That explains a lot, thank you...

She had 5k before the release of the note? That's mighty impressive...

Her parents were fucking scumbags. Wow. That's incredibly disrespectful of their own daughter.

Why is it always the religious nitwits causing trouble? Is there a quote on how terrible it is to be transgender in the Bible, a black and white one? No? Then fuck off.

You will notice that some Christian hateful beliefs like this one do not find their roots directly in the Bible, but in faulty interpretations men make of Bible quotes, something we are warned not to do. (2 Peter 1:20) In the same token, I think any man that can money shot like a horse and has a donkey-grade dick should be killed. After all, a woman lusted after them in Ezekiel - we must protect them from sinning. Death to men with huge cocks and huge balls!

I'm tired of fuckwits justifying their hate using religion.

I wonder if there's anything anybody can do to make it right...

The mother ended up giving an interview to CNN...talking about how great 'he' was, but still using male pronouns and his male name. She claimed that 'he' only talked to her once about gender, that 'he' was taken to therapy for general depression and not gender issues, and that she hadn't heard the name Leelah until after 'his' death. She also claimed that the reason she wouldn't approve of reassignment surgery wasn't because of religion, but because they couldn't afford it.

Whether she's trying to put a spin on the story that makes her look better or there were honest poor communication issues, I don't know. But if there were communication issues, this goes to show how important it is to be sensitive to other people's feelings even if you disagree with what they're feeling. Open communication is vital to any relationship, and if it's not there...it will suffer. It could very well be that the parent's initial response was so negative that she never brought it back up again, deciding to suffer in silence instead.

Unfortunately it's too late to make this right, but I know with work and time we can make this right in the future. The course of history clearly shows a trend toward more acceptance of different people...we may not be there yet, but I truly believe at some point in the future we will be as long as we work toward that.

Unfortunately, we can't know the whole truth unless we were there to see it.  It's possible that Leelah was so depressed about everything going on that she took her parents' denial out of context and assumed it was religious reasons, she could have been so upset that everything just seemed wrong even if they weren't entirely...and it's possible that every detail of her blog was completely accurate, and we're looking at a story that reminded me quite a bit of Bridegroom, if anyone has ever seen it.

Basically it's a supposedly completely true recount of events about a couple that fell deeply in love and were making plans to marry, one of them died, and things went to hell because of parents that could never accept their dead son's sexuality.  The boyfriend was never informed of the funeral, and to make things worse, the parents made every effort to make it as if everything in their son's life beyond him being with them never even existed, including putting living tombstones or memorials (I can't remember exactly what they were called) on both sides of his tombstone (even though his parents were still alive), so any hopes of his boyfriend one day being buried next to him were quashed.

But it's a similar thing, though.  I don't remember if the parents ever talked out about it, but it's a documentary you have to take very lightly because it's purely in the perspective of the boyfriend, so there's always a chance that there's exaggerations, things blown out of proportion, or it could have been completely accurate and the parents were definitely as dickish and stupid as they sounded.

Like I said, though (going back to the main topic)...we'll never know the whole truth unless we were there to witness it.  In the end though, no matter what, that doesn't make the death any less tragic or the parents any less responsible for not seeing the signs that their daughter (which they should have said) was on that edge.  Some might be better at hiding some of the signs that they're going to kill themselves, but there's always at least one sign that'll be blaring like a siren.

EDIT: On another note, I will say that it is a bit disconcerting that the parents keep using the wrong pronoun.  Regardless of whether or not they could afford it, or the real reasoning for the therapy...it's still obvious that they knew their daughter wanted to be a female, so they should be respecting that.

Not only that, but apparently her parents have had her tumblr and the original suicide note pulled down and are planning to put her male name on her tombstone...regardless of the details, it's obvious at this point that there's issues here and that they didn't support her. And if they're doing this after she has tragically died, I can't imagine how they were when she was alive. I can't imagine having to suffer that kind of rejection on a daily basis from people that you expect and want the most support from.

We may not know the whole truth, but I think we know enough just from their actions since her death.

^Well I do agree with this.  They admitted right there that they knew their son wanted to be a female.  Regardless of whether or not it was a one time discussion or not, the bug was planted in their ears.  If it really was a one time discussion, it's more likely that it was brought up, they dismissed it for whatever reason (whether it was religion or lack of finances to go through with it), and Leelah was less than willing to ever bring it up to them again.

However, the tone of her note does suggest that it was a continuous discussion that was dismissed.

But like I said, whatever the reason may be, the point is this was a girl that was at her lowest, and the only people she felt she could count on or those that she should have been able to count on, failed her.  They failed because in the end, she took her own life, and they should feel responsible for it.  The fact that her parents are taking down her suicide note and doing their best to manipulate events show that they're clearly not owning up to the guilt that they should be feeling.