Aged 16, she requested that she be allowed to undergo transition treatment, but was denied permission: in her words, "I felt hopeless, that I was just going to look like a man in drag for the rest of my life. Īlcorn's mother sent her to Christian conversion therapists, but Alcorn later related that there she only encountered "more Christians" telling her that she was "selfish and wrong" and "should look to God for help". She stated that this made her hate herself, and that she developed a form of depression. According to her note, she immediately informed her mother, who reacted "extremely negatively" by claiming that it was only a phase and that God had made her a male, so she could never be a woman. She rejected the name she was given by her parents, and signed her suicide note "(Leelah) Josh Alcorn". According to her suicide note, Alcorn had felt "like a girl trapped in a boy's body" since she was four, and came to identify as a transgender girl from the age of 14, when she became aware of the term. As of 2014, the family lived in Kings Mills. She described herself as one of several children being raised in a conservative Christian environment she and her family attended the Northeast Church of Christ in Cincinnati, and she had been featured in a profile of that church published in a 2011 article in The Christian Chronicle. Leelah Alcorn was born in Kings Mills, Ohio, on November 15, 1997. That won't do anything but make them hate them self. Even if you are Christian or are against transgender people don't ever say that to someone, especially your kid. If you are reading this, parents, please don't tell this to your kids. 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. After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was. "When I was 14, I learned what transgender meant and cried of happiness. They defended their refusal to accept Alcorn's identity and their use of conversion therapy by reference to their Christian beliefs.
Alcorn's parents were severely criticized for misgendering and deadnaming her in comments to the media, while LGBT rights activist Dan Savage held them responsible for their child's death, and social media users harassed them online. Within a year, the city of Cincinnati criminalized conversion therapy. Petitions were formed calling for the establishment of "Leelah's Law", a ban on conversion therapy in the United States, which received a supportive response from then-president Barack Obama. LGBT rights activists called attention to the incident as evidence of the problems faced by transgender youth, while vigils were held in her memory in the United States and United Kingdom. In her suicide note, Alcorn cited loneliness and alienation as key reasons for her decision to end her life and blamed her parents for causing these feelings.Īlcorn used Tumblr's timer feature to publish her suicide note online several hours after her death, and it soon attracted international attention across mainstream and social media. After she revealed her attraction toward males to her classmates, her parents removed her from school and revoked her access to social media.
When she was 16, they denied her request to undergo transition treatment, instead sending her to Christian-based conversion therapy with the intention of convincing her to reject her gender identity and accept her gender as assigned at birth.
At age 14, she came out as transgender to her parents, Carla and Doug Alcorn, who refused to accept her female gender identity. X cute male reader.Leelah Alcorn (November 15, 1997 – December 28, 2014) was an American transgender girl whose suicide attracted international attention she had posted a suicide note to her Tumblr blog about societal standards affecting transgender people and expressing the hope that her death would create a dialogue about discrimination, abuse, and lack of support for transgender people.īorn and raised in Kings Mills, Ohio, Alcorn was assigned male at birth and grew up in a family affiliated with the Churches of Christ movement.