KINGS MILLS, Ohio — A 17-year-old transgendered teen’s death has received national attention, in part due to a suicide note she wrote online, pleading for others to “fix society.”
According to WLWT, Leelah Alcorn, 17, was born Joshua Alcorn. On Sunday morning she was hit by a tractor-trailer traveling on the interstate.
Before her death, Leelah wrote a suicide note and posted it on Tumbler.
In the detailed note, she said she felt “like a girl trapped in a boy’s body” since she was four years old. Leelah said when she turned 14, she discovered the meaning of transgender and “cried of happiness.”
But she also discussed her parents’ disappointment and unwillingness to accept her, and wrote that they took her to Christian therapists.
“There’s no winning,” Leelah wrote. “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.”
“So they took me out of public school, took away my laptop and phone, and forbid me of getting on any sort of social media, completely isolating me from my friends. This was probably the part of my life when I was the most depressed, and I’m surprised I didn’t kill myself. I was completely alone for 5 months. No friends, no support, no love. Just my parent’s disappointment and the cruelty of loneliness.”
Leelah said the only way she would ever rest in peace is if one day transgender people “aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated with valid feelings and human rights.”
She ended by saying, “My death needs to mean something. Fix society. Please.”
Leelah’s friends and even strangers across the country have taken to Twitter and Facebook, creating a hashtag, #LeelahAlcorn, to raise awareness of her life and the transgender community.
A Facebook group has been created to offer support and community.
