Leelah Alcorn was a vibrant 17 year old when she took her own life. She completed suicide because she believed that she could never be happy. A transgender teen, Leelah approached her parents for support in transitioning from a biological boy to the girl she knew she was. Her devoutly Christian parents refused to help her. Instead, they abused her. They told her she would never be a real girl. They took her to Christian therapists who told Leelah she was selfish, that she was wrong, and that she should look to God for help. Her parents made it clear that they did not accept Leelah and that she would have to face living life in the wrong body.
The abuse of her parents and the so-called therapists Leelah saw drove her to take her own life. It is a tragedy that could have easily been avoided, and it calls for stronger laws to protect transgender kids.
There is a precedent set in the courts for parents who deny their children medical attention. Many cases have been heard in which parents, due to their misguided religious beliefs, refuse to help their kids by taking them to the doctor. Some of those children died, and their parents are now in jail, charged with abuse, neglect and in some cases, manslaughter.
It should be no different for the parents of Leelah Alcorn, and for all parents who deny their transgender children the medical attention those children so desperately need. New laws must be enacted that ensure no transgender kid will ever have to face the abuse and neglect Leelah did.
Leelah’s death has been ruled a suicide, and according to the information she left in her last letter to the world, her parents are the ones responsible for her death. Since her parents purposely isolated Leelah from her friends, forced harmful therapy treatment on her and neglected to help her in any way, they deserve to be punished for their actions. If the current laws do not allow for their punishment, then the laws need to be strengthened immediately. In her suicide note, Leelah wrote: “My death needs to mean something. …. Fix society. Please.”
Leelah also warned that parents of transgender kids should not treat their children the way Leelah’s parents treated her. For some, that warning is not enough. This is the time when we must change the laws to ensure that there will be dire consequences for those who refuse to provide proper and life-saving medical care for their transgender children.
Leelah asked us to fix society. Let us do it.