"My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say 'that’s fucked up' and fix it. Fix society. Please."
A 17-year-old transgender teen was struck and killed by a passing semi trailer on an Ohio interstate on Sunday, and a previously written suicide note later appeared on the teen’s Tumblr blog through scheduled publishing.
Leelah Alcorn was in the roadway when she was struck, and is believed to have walked 3-4 miles from her parents house in nearby Kings Mill, Ohio.
Police say she died at 2:20 a.m. Sunday.
The incident is being investigated by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, but hours after Leelah’s death a suicide note appeared on her Tumblr blog.
In the note, Leelah said she identified as a transgender female from age 14, when she first became aware of the term, having felt “like a girl trapped in a boy’s body” since she was four.
Leelah said she subsequently came out online, and turned primarily towards the internet for friendship. She said she attempted to convince her parents that she had to medically transition, but claims she instead received therapy and “biased” counseling from Christian therapists:
Leelah also describes coming out as gay at age 16, hoping it would be a stepping stone to coming out as transgender at a later date. She wrote that she was instead taken out of school by her parents and cut off from the outside world for five months as her parents denied her access to her laptop, social media and phone.
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