Leelah Alcorn's Suicide

About

Leelah Alcorn’s Suicide refers to the suicide of transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn, born Josh Alcorn, who committed suicide by stepping into traffic on December 21, 2014 and left a suicide note on her tumblr queue which was published one day after her death. She was hit by a tractor trailer on Interstate 71, 4 miles from her Ohio home.^[1]

The Suicide Note

The suicide note^[2] attributed the reasons behind her depression and eventual suicide to the rejection from her family who, according to Leelah “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,” took her to Christian therapists who told her “that I was selfish and wrong and that I should look to God for help.” After being isolated by her parents from her peers for 5 months, she began to have suicidal thoughts. The note ends with a plea for her property to be sold and her money to be put to “trans civil rights and support groups,” and for her death to mean something. The post gained several hundred thousand notes on tumblr.

Online Reaction

News of Leelah’s death spread quickly on tumblr and twitter garnering solemn sympathy and outrage, with transgender activists such as Laverne Cox, Andre Pejic, Janet Mock and indy video game developer Brianna Wu^[3] commenting, and posts about the circumstances of her suicide gaining upwards of 200 thousand notes.

Transgender activist and writer Janet Mock, had her tweet widely shared on twitter, including being retweeted by Laverne Cox, actress from “Orange is the New Black” and transgender activist.

The story was picked up by several news outlets including Time^[4], ABC news^[5], The Daily Mail^[6], Buzzfeed^[7], USA Today^[8], the Mirror^[9], International Buisness Times^[10], and Cincinnati.com^[11].

“Rest in Power”

Rest in power is a phrase that’s been associated with support for Leelah and her request that her death matter. Attributed to a tweet made by twitter user “Lionesse” it was mentioned in an article by the Washington Post^[12] and has been adopted by many of the supporters and grievers since.

#RealLiveTransAdult

#RealLiveTransAdult is a hashtag started in the wake of Leelah Alcorn’s suicide for transgender adults to share their stories and encourage younger transgender people. The phenomena was mentioned in an article by NBC news^[13].

Change.org Petition

On December 30th a Change.org petition was started by the “Transgender Human Rights Institute” calling on President Obama and the US Congress to pass a law “to immediately seek a pathway for banning the practice known as ‘transgender conversion therapy’” in order to protect transgender youth, and that they name it “the Leelah Alcorn Law.”^[14]

The petition gained over 100,000 signatures after one day.

remembering-lazerprincess

“remembering-lazerprincess”^[15] is a tumblr blog dedicated to the remembrance of Leelah Alcorn and the support of transgender causes. It’s url and name are in reference to the Leelah’s username on tumblr and it’s background theme is also the same as her original blog. It is run by two Australian based mods, a self-described bi-gendered individual and a trans man and has gained upwards of one thousand followers in the days after the suicide note came forward.